Let's start again
by Rebekah Reynolds
Summary: After Lisa's death, Ianto had a chance at a fresh start. Now he must decide what, and who he wants in life.Pairing - Janto,  Rating - T, will be M in later chapters,  Warnings - Slash
1. This wasn't what I wanted

Title: **Let's start again**  
>Category: TV Shows » Torchwood<br>Author: Rebekah Reynolds  
>Language: English, Rating: Rated: T<br>Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Romance  
>Published: 06-15-11, Updated: 11-20-11<br>Chapters: 16, Words: 28,475

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: This wasn't what I wanted<strong>

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><p><strong>Pairing - Janto<strong>

**Warnings - Slash**

**Disclaimer - Obviously I don't own Torchwood, I own the series on DVD but I doubt that means I'll be paid for writing this. Everything but the plot belongs to the BBC and Russell T Davies.**

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><p>Ianto Jones was numb. He sat, soaked to the bone in the freezing pool of water in the HUB leaning back against the towering plass and staring at nothing.<p>

'How the hell did this happen? This wasn't what I wanted.'

No, when Ianto had brought Lisa to Cardiff he could have never imagined something like this happening. Three people were dead; Dr. Tanazaki - the man who was supposed to be their saviour, the man who was supposed to open the door to his future with Lisa, had been killed by the hands of the person he tried to save. The pizza girl, he couldn't even remember her name – she had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Lisa, Lisa had been his everything. She was his only reason for being since he left London; everything he had done had been to keep her safe, to make sure that they would be together. He was going to make her better. Damn Jack and his "there is no cure."

Jack, oh God. Jack was going to kill him, or maybe if he was lucky just RETCON him. Who was Ianto kidding? he had manipulated the entire team from the moment he joined Torchwood three and almost gotten them all killed. He was as good as dead.

It was Jack who caused Ianto to snap out of his far away, almost catatonic state – or rather, Jack's shoes. Captain Jack Harkness, looking every bit the fearless leader of a secret organisation, was stood calf deep in a pool of cold water, ruining his vintage shoes. Ianto would have found it funny if he wasn't terrified to find that he'd never seen anything as cold as those ice blue eyes looking down at him.

"With me." He commanded, turning his back on Ianto and heading up towards the tourist office.

The younger man could practically feel the anger rolling off him as he walked away, and as much as Ianto would have liked to curl up into a ball and disappear, he forced himself to stand, brushing himself off uselessly (his suit was covered in blood and dirt and was beyond the help of even Ianto's laundry skills). Rather than leaving Jack angry for having to wait, Ianto forced himself up and began the walk to the tourist office. It had never seemed such a huge distance in the past. He felt every bit the condemned man on his way to the gallows with the eyes of his co-workers, the team-mates he had betrayed, on his back.

All the way up to the office, Ianto had tried to think, to think of anything that he could say which could make up for this, but he came up blank. At the end of the grey corridor, the young archivist took a deep breath and prepared himself as best he could to face what was coming. As soon as he stepped through the secret door he was faced with his commander, leaning against the tall desk with his arms folded across his chest and his expression unreadable.

Despite his situation, Ianto found himself worrying about the small puddles his dripping suit was leaving on the floor, not so noticeable on the steel and concrete of the HUB below but which created obvious, almost accusing dark spots on the worn red carpet of the office.

Jack turned his back to Ianto for a moment and retrieved a white plastic box that was on the desk amongst the tourist maps and bus timetables.

"Gun. ID. Phone. Keys." he held out the box for Ianto to put them inside, from this angle he could see his name, date of birth and Torchwood agent number written on a small form on the top in Jack's messy handwriting.

Reluctantly, and somewhat confused, Ianto handed over the keys to the SUV and HUB - removing them from his own key chain – his work mobile and Torchwood ID. The gun, he never wanted to see it again so he quickly removed the magazine and placed them both into the box with his other effects. The Captain sealed the box with a piece of tape with TORCHWOOD printed on it (not unlike police evidence tape) and Ianto watched as Jack put the box back on the counter.

When Jack turned back to Ianto he opened his hand to reveal an all too familiar white pill and a plastic cup filled with water. With shaking hands Ianto reached out and took the cup and pill from him. Jack watched him swallow the pill then drink down the rest of the water. Taking one last look at the young man in front of him, soaked, shivering, scared and exhausted, Captain Jack Harkness sent him on his way.

He hoped never to see that young man again.

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><p><strong>AN – dun dun duuuuuuun! did I just RETCON Ianto in the first chapter? Yes I did! Because I'm evil!<strong>


	2. The first day of the rest of your life

**Chapter 2: The first day of the rest of your life**

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><p>Ianto Jones woke up feeling bruised and exhausted with no memory as to why. Opening his eyes he found himself in his sister's living room lying uncomfortably on her short two seater couch. That explained the backache, but not the pounding in his head or the ache in his chest. He tried to remember how the hell he got there but it was fuzzy. Walking into the kitchen he squinted at the blinding sunlight flooding through the window. As the room began to spin he found himself retching over the sink. Keeping his eyes closed, Ianto reached out to the draining board and groped until he found a glass. He filled it from the tap and gulped it down, the cold water soothing his parched throat.<p>

Sitting down at the kitchen table Ianto waited for the room to stop swaying. After a few minutes he managed to scribble a note for Rhiannon which he pinned to the fridge, where he knew she would be heading as soon as she woke up for the glass of orange juice which had been a part of her morning routine since they were kids. The thought brought a smile to Ianto's face, his might not be perfect but at least his family got to live nice normal lives.

Outside, Ianto closed the front door silently and listened to make sure that the latch clicked. The morning air still had a chill and the sun was barely visible over the horizon so it couldn't be much after seven. Ianto waited at the bus stop for ten minutes, then rode the number 30 bus all the way from Newport to Cardiff central. By the time he had walked back to his flat, it was 8:15 and his answering machine was flashing red.

"_You have two new messages – Message one"_

'Ianto Jones I could bloody kill you!' Ianto smiled at his sister's voice over the phone 'appearing in the middle of the night drunk off your arse like that. Then, you're gone by stupid o'clock in the morning. What am I supposed to think? Look, I'll be over this afternoon to check on you. Love you Brawd'

Ianto grimaced, he should have know he couldn't just leave like that, still it was nice that somebody cared about hi,, even if Rhiannon could be a little suffocating at times.

"Rwy'n dy garu de hefyd" *

"_Message two." _The voice which came over the machine next hit Ianto like a punch in the gut. He slid down the wall he was leaning on and held his knees to his chest for a feeling of security.

"Ianto, it's Jack. I just wanted to check on you and let you know what's going on but I guess you're not home. I'm giving you a month off; you need to grieve. The RETCON I gave you last night should help. It's an ultra low dose I use to take the edge off the pain after something like this, makes it kind of like it happened a while ago. Take care of yourself Jones Ianto Jones. We need you. I need you, and I expect you back at work four weeks today" BEEP

"_End of messages._" The silence in the flat was suffocating. For hours Ianto just sat there on the floor, letting his grief and relief fall down his cheeks as tears. Lisa had tried to 'delete' Jack, but Jack wasn't going to let himself be deleted just yet. He'd come back from Lisa's attack, and he wasn't going anywhere now. Captain Jack Harkness was a fixed point in space and time. He wasn't about to be erased by something chemical like RETCON. Ianto was glad that the RETCON hadn't wiped the job which had started to become his whole world from his mind. As much as this hurt he couldn't imagine losing the last five years of his life. For the past five years, so many of his dreams had involved Lisa and their future together, involved Torchwood and aliens and all of the amazing, beautiful things he now knew that the rest of the world didn't. Even if he wasn't happy that Jack had given him drugs without explaining what they would do and as much as he would have liked to be able to grieve in his own way he was glad to have kept his memories but now regretted getting stinking drunk last night.

Eventually, Ianto managed to stand, though he faltered when he got to the couch. On the end table was a photograph of him and Lisa on a Ferris wheel at the fair in Brighton about three months before the attack on Canary Wharf. She was kissing him on the cheek while he held out the camera to take the picture. He had eaten too much junk that day and made himself sick. That put a bit of a damper on their first romantic weekend away but they were just glad to be together, in a little B&B on the promenade. Remembering how happy they were and how quickly it all turned to shit had tears burning in his eyes again. Hugging the picture to his chest, Ianto curled up on the couch and cried in a way he hadn't since he was a child.

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><p>Around three that afternoon, Rhiannon Davies reached into her handbag and pulled out her key to her brother's flat, a key which she had never had occasion to use in the months since her brother returned to Cardiff but did so without hesitation today . Something was wrong and Ianto had her worried, when he left for university in London he couldn't seem to get away fast enough, so she had been surprised to hear that he was moving back to Cardiff when his girlfriend got sick and didn't want to live in the city any more. Then last night, he had turned up at her door drunk, dirty and sobbing after she hadn't seen him for three months. Something had happened. There was no doubt about that.<p>

Inside the flat, Rhiannon took in how neat it was. Ianto had always been tidy. Mam had a thing about cleanliness. She even used to inspect their bedrooms, and after Ianto had his Game boy taken away a week after Christmas because he hadn't put his clothes in the hamper, he got a little obsessive – apparently it never wore off.

"Ianto? Where are you?" Rhiannon's question received no response but she followed the snuffling sounds down the corridor, passing doors which she assumed led into her brother's bedroom and bathroom and found him on the couch, his eyes red and puffy, clutching a picture frame. Sitting on the edge of the couch she stroked his hair and took a look at the picture in is hands. It was of him and his girlfriend, the one who'd been in hospital since he got back to Cardiff, but she'd never actually met.

"She's dead isn't she, your girl?"

Ianto looked up at her in confusion "How...How did you?"

"Well I thought maybe she'd left you, but what with her being so sick I just figured," she stopped, pulled Ianto into a hug and held him there, feeling his tears soak into her shoulder "That doctor, the Japanese bloke you talked about, he couldn't help?"

Ianto moved back so that they were sat together on the sofa, though he kept Rhiannon's arms around him, feeling safe there.

"No, there was nothing he could do. She was too far gone." It was true. By the time Dr. Tanazaki had arrived, it was too late for **his** Lisa. Hell, it was too late for her when he pulled her out of the conversion unit in London. Before he knew it, he was being pulled into a tighter hug and his sister was singing to him softly while rubbing circles down his back like their mother did when they were children. Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

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><p><em>Rwy'n dy garu de hefyd<em> = I love you too in welsh...I'm trying to avoid putting too much Welsh in this fic because though I understand it fine my welsh isn't the best in the world and I'd hate to teach you all the wrong thing...also I hate writing these translations.


	3. Lost and Found

**Chapter 3: Lost and Found**

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><p><strong>AN – Guys who read this in the original posting will probably notice that this used to be 2 chapters but it made no sense to split it just for the sake of a cliffhanger.<strong>

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><p><strong>1130 AM. <strong>Ianto should have been in by now and Toshiko was worried. His suspension was up yesterday and when he had called her to say that he was ill she had passed it on to Jack, reassuring her boss that Ianto would be back the next day. But this morning there had been no call, no explanation, just Owen grumbling about Gwen's awful coffee and silence in the archives. Though she had managed to convince Jack to give Ianto another half hour by the time noon rolled around he had exhausted his already short temper.

"Jack, I'm sure he just forgot to call in. If he's sick then he's probably in bed."

"No, yesterday he was sick. Today he's just hiding." Jack shrugged Toshiko's hand off his arm. "He's had a month to get himself together, but now it's time to come back to reality. If you need me I'll be on the comms."

Jack didn't understand. He'd done everything he could to give Ianto the space he needed to grieve. Hadn't he?

When he arrived in the garage he found Gwen sat on the bonnet of the SUV with her arms crossed looking like an eight year old having a tantrum.

"Off Gwen!"

"No Jack, Tosh said you're headed out to pick up Ianto and if you go in angry then all you're going to do is scare him." She couldn't let Jack do that, they had no idea what kind of a state Ianto would be in after having a month to himself but for him to avoid coming to work she thought he must be afraid.

"Tosh? I swear this is a mutiny." Jack shook his head "Fine, you win. Get in." Gwen was barely inside the SUV when Jack floored it out of the concealed garage towards Ianto's flat, the directions to which he was being fed from the Sat Nav based on the address listed in Ianto's personnel file.

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><p>Ianto Jones lay curled up on top of the sheets of a cold double bed in his boxers, his suit and tie lying in a crumpled mess where he had thrown them earlier and was entirely unable to motivate himself to get up. Dressing for work this morning, he had seen himself in the mirror and felt utterly sickened that he looked so normal, more than normal he looked better than he had in a long time. For the last four weeks, Rhiannon had taken it upon herself to make sure that he ate properly, slept at night and got to see the sun as she thought he was too pale, his only responsibilities involved entertaining and helping to take care of her two children. Taking care of the kids meant that at the end of the day he was tired enough to avoid the insomnia he had suffered in the first few days of his suspension, but not so tired that he was exhausted all the time. As a consequence he'd gained a little weight and he no longer had to conceal the dark smudges which had taken up permanent residence under his eyes since he had arrived in Cardiff. In short, Ianto Jones was healthy, and he hated it. He was haunted by a nagging sense of guilt that he wasn't still crushed under the weight of his grief. So seeing himself looking just like the cold emotionless butler persona he had aimed for while working at Torchwood sickened him, he wasn't that man and never had been. Ianto had torn off the tie and shirt along with the rest of his clothes and gone back to bed. Wishing to any god that was listening that he could wake up to find Lisa next to him and that the last year had been a dream.<p>

Ianto was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud banging on the front door. His initial reaction was one of fear. Though it was irrational, Ianto had spent the last half of the month expecting that Jack would change his mind about letting him live. He had seen Jack kill ruthlessly in the past. Why would he forgive Ianto's betrayal so easily?

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><p>The Torchwood SUV screeched up to the curb in front of the converted Victorian town house which, according to his driving licence, was Ianto's address. By the time Gwen had locked the car Jack was already at the main door of the building, pushing every button on the intercom system until one of Ianto's neighbours buzzed him in. They were half way to Ianto's floor when a woman in her eighties opened her door to yell at Jack as he came up the stairs...apparently she didn't take kindly to being interrupted while watching 'neighbours'. Jack didn't even pause, just shouted back to Gwen as he continued up the stairs.<p>

"Gwen, deal with this."

Jack reached the red wooden door of Ianto's apartment, and knocked to no avail. When there was no response, he knocked harder and by the time Gwen made it up the stairs he was all out banging on the door.

"Jack!" Gwen pulled his arm away from its path towards the door. "Tosh said Ianto is sick, he's probably in bed."

"Or he's passed out on the floor and can't come to the door, stand back." Jack was good at coming up with reasons why he had to kick in doors, if he was honest he loved it but hey knew Gwen disapproved.

"What? I..."

As soon as Gwen moved away from the door, he kicked the door's weak spot, splintering the wood and breaking the lock. He drew his Webley – you could never be too careful when performing a home invasion – only to find that the flat was completely devoid of life. The blinds were closed, and there was minimal furniture while every surface was covered in a fine layer of dust. Ianto Jones had not been here in some time.

Groaning as he made his way down the stairs Ianto Jones pulled open the front door to reveal a teenage boy on the doorstep.

"Alright mate? David in? I'll go up." With that he pushed past Ianto and made his way up the stairs towards his friend's bedroom. Less than a minute later the pair came running back down. On their way out of the door David turned to his uncle.

"Going the park. Back in a bit."

Ianto smirked "You'll be home in an hour or your Mam'll be out after you." The youths ran off to the field across from the house, and Ianto went into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Though he'd never really thought about kids and hadn't really spent any time with them before, helping out with David and Mica had felt completely natural.

David reminded him of himself at that age. He loved rugby, did okay at school, and had very few close friends, and since Johnny had walked out Rhiannon was just glad that there was a man in the house again so she didn't worry about her son so much. Ianto was almost sad that he had to go back to work. He'd left home at 18, and been scouted by Torchwood in his first year at University so he hadn't been able to stay in close contact with his family which he knew hurt Rhiannon more than she let on. It had been nice to spend some time with family. He'd learned that he hadn't really lost everything with Lisa. He still had a family to go home to.

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><p>At the HUB, Toshiko was up on Myfannwy's nest leaving some food covered in the 'barbecue sauce' for her to find when she got back from flying abut the HUB when her communicator beeped, almost causing her to fall. She tapped the headset and was connected to Jack.<p>

"Tosh, Ianto isn't at home. It looks like he hasn't been here in a while, I need you to find out where the hell he is."

Tosh finished walking down the metal steps and once she reached the concrete floor, she released the guard rail and answered Jack.

"Give me a minute. That's the only address in his file. He grew up in Newport, but both parents are deceased so he can't be with them. Hang on, I'll try to get a position based on his mobile."

There was silence for a moment "Tosh, his mobile is in storage. I took it with his gun when he was suspended."

Toshiko loved knowing things that Jack didn't. "His work mobile yes, but how do you think he called me yesterday. He has one of his own as well." Tosh got to work on the computer and the world map quickly highlighted Britain, then south Wales, and eventually a residential address on a Cardiff estate, she smiled to herself at the accuracy of the tracer and reconnected her communicator to Jack's "I'm sending the address to your PDA. The sat nav should direct you to it automatically."

"Thanks Tosh." With that Jack tapped the device at his ear to cut off the call and walked the rest of the distance to the SUV with Gwen following behind. They made it almost a mile before Gwen's self restraint died, and she gave Jack her opinion.

"Jack, when we get wherever it is we're going, I'm going in ahead of you. You can't attack Ianto the way you we're attacking his door back there."

The captain glared at the road ahead of him and practically yelled his response back at Gwen. "I'm not angry."

"I never said you were, and if you stop driving like a madman we both might survive to get to where Ianto is. When we do, I'm going in ahead of you."

Jack scowled and grumbled to himself about totalling the car, that way he wouldn't have to listen to Gwen any more. Thankfully she knew not to take him seriously, the poor man hadn't had a decent cup of coffee in over a month.

After another ten minutes of Jack's maniacal driving, the PDA which was docked on the dashboard beeped and declared that they had reached their destination. They pulled up outside what looked to be a perfectly ordinary house on a council estate. Jack was certain that Tosh's information was wrong until he saw Ianto sitting on a wooden bench in the front garden with a woman who was smoking a cigarette. After noticing the SUV's arrival the Welshman seemed to have a minor argument with the woman until she stubbed out her cigarette on the arm of the bench and went inside. Once she was back in the house Ianto stood and raised in his hand in a half hearted wave to Jack and Gwen.

True to her word, Gwen practically jumped out of the car in order to walk through the garden gate ahead of Jack, who wasn't in much of a hurry anyway. He was too busy taking in the sight of the young man in front of him. This was a Ianto Jones he had never met before. He looked so young in a pair of grey jeans and a tight red t-shirt. At work in his perfectly fitting suits it was easy to forget that he was only twenty-five. But here, barefoot and dressed casually he looked happier than Jack had ever seen him and so very different from a month ago when he walked shaking and broken out of the HUB.

Gwen reached Ianto and immediately pulled him into a hug. This made the young Welshman uncomfortable but he allowed the contact. She thought it strange that he didn't seem surprised that they were here. It even seemed that he had been waiting outside for them which she took to mean that they weren't going to be invited in.

"You weren't expecting us were you Ianto? I think Jack had his heart set on doing the whole scary breaking in thing."

"Ah." Ianto reached into his pocket and held up his phone "Tosh rang." The two welsh people were sure they heard Jack mutter "mutiny!" and stifled a laugh.

Gwen directed Ianto to the bench where she sat down next to him and continued their conversation, switching into welsh to keep Jack from butting in. Though, she had barely had time to ask him how he had been for the last few weeks when Jack's temper snapped.

"Hey, I am your boss and you will **not** exclude me from a situation by chatting away in gobbledygook."

Ianto wasn't prepared to take any rubbish from Jack today. "You have lived in Wales for God knows how many years and never bothered to learn the language?"

Jack couldn't help it. Though he was angry he couldn't deny that Ianto Jones was hot when he was yelling. His eyes shone, and when he fisted his hands the muscles in his arm became more pronounced."...and Gwen was just asking me how I was. Why does everyone always assume that as soon as you start speaking a language they don't understand, you're doing something sinister?"

Before Jack could respond two teenage boys came running towards the house, forcing him to move from where he stood blocking the gate. Once they were inside the garden, the taller boy threw the rugby ball he was holding full force at Ianto's head. Gwen squeaked and protected her head with her arms, but Ianto laughed and caught the ball with one hand, tossed it back and the boys carried on their way into the house. From inside they heard a woman yelling. "David is that you? You're late **again!**"

Jack was confused. "Where exactly are we Ianto? And why the hell are you hiding out here when you should be back at work?" Jack crossed his arms over is chest and leaned on the garden fence.

"Okay, first, I am not hiding. This is my sister's house the boy with the rugby ball is my nephew and there's a niece inside as well. I wound up here after...you know, and Rhiannon wouldn't let me leave. I've been staying here for a month."

Gwen looked at him strangely. "She won't let you leave? Is that why you haven't come back to work?"

"No, I tried to come in this morning. I got dressed for work, but every one of my suits reminds me of Lisa of sneaking down to the basement to look after her or even just to keep her company."

Jack looked at him seriously, accepting his reason for staying away but having to make it clear that it wouldn't be an excuse he could use forever. "So it's the suit that's giving you trouble? Fine, don't wear one." Jack didn't realise that Ianto might have taken that to mean that he shouldn't wear _anything _until he watched the young man go as red as his shirt. " I mean, what you're wearing is fine. You're the only one who wears a suit anyway, except, erm, you might want to put on some shoes." Jack was amused to see Ianto look down at his bare feet and wiggle his toes on the grass.

"Fine, how about I go put on some shoes and I'll explain to Rhi that I'm going back with you." He turned to head back into the house but paused as he opened the door and turned back to Jack.

"By the way, if I get back to the HUB and find that anyone has touched my coffee machine I'll kill them."

Gwen paled. She had attempted to make the team's coffee for the last month, but she could barely operate the complicated machine and anything she made was discreetly tipped down the sink when the others thought that she wasn't looking.

"We'll wait in the car." Jack led Gwen back to the SUV and settled himself in the driver's seat in contented silence while he waited for his archivist to join them. Ianto climbed in to the front passenger seat three minutes later and Jack was so happy at the prospect of having his entire team together again that he kept to the speed limit the entire way back to the HUB.


	4. ParTay!

**Chapter 4: ParTay!**

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><p>Ianto had been back at work for about a week when Toshiko began to notice anomalies on the weather scanner. There were sudden examples of extreme weather which had her worried. She assumed that there was a problem with the program and at eleven PM, hours after everyone else had gone home, she was close to screaming in frustration. Out of nowhere Ianto appeared, in a pair of smart trousers and a deep red shirt but without the tie waistcoat or jacket he used to wear.<p>

"Tosh, you need to take a break. I was just about to feed Myfanwy if you wanted to help?"

Tosh took of the glasses she wore when spending a large amount of time at the computer and stood even though she was still a head shorter than the tall archivist.

"Sorry Ianto but I really don't think she likes me. While you were gone I used to leave her food when she wasn't there. The first day I took it up to her while she was sat in the nest and she nearly took my arm off."

Ianto laughed. "Come on. There's nothing to be scared of." He took her hand and led her up the thin metal stairway to where the Torchwood Pterodactyl made her nest. Toshiko stayed firmly behind Ianto, holding on tight to his shirt which he couldn't help but chuckle at. She was surprised that the "food" he'd brought up was actually several large bars of Tesco dark chocolate.

"You feed her chocolate? Is that even safe?"

"Well I don't do it all the time, but if you're worried that she doesn't like you then I'm sure she'll love you after this." He broke up one of the bars and placed about half of it broken into squares on Tosh's hand. The Pterosaurs chose this moment to return to her nest and upon smelling the chocolate, turned to Toshiko and proceeded to eat the treat out of her hands. Surprisingly, when Tosh angled her hand to allow the creature to feed she didn't find herself missing an arm, more that Myfanwy was managing to get all of the chocolate without once grazing the small woman's hand with her teeth. When the chocolate was gone, Toshiko beamed up at Ianto who was now stroking the back of Myfanwy's head with the hand which wasn't holding the shopping bag. He laid the rest of her food inside the nest, some meat already covered in her special sauce and the rest of the chocolate bar, then led Toshiko down the stairs to the ground.

"Thanks for that Ianto. I needed to distract myself from this damn program, I think it must be broken. It keeps showing extreme weather patterns on clear days. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Picking up her handbag and jacket, Ianto led her out of the HUB. "In the morning I'll help you compare it to data from the local and national weather database and we'll see what the problem is, but right now it's about time we both headed home."

Tosh responded with a "hmm." She was dead on her feet and swayed into him as she struggled to remain standing, it had been an exhausting day of weevil chasing and it seemed that Tosh had been more tired than she thought. Being the gentleman that he was Ianto offered to drive her home.

When they arrived at Tosh's house Ianto saw her in then was about to say goodnight when he remembered something.

"I'm having a bit of a house-warming tomorrow night. I just moved in to my new flat and I'm having some people over if you're interested."

"Okay, who's going to be there?"

"My sister and her kids and I was going to ask the team tomorrow." Tosh smiled sleepily up at him and nodded her head. Ianto kissed her forehead and walked back out of her living room ready to see himself out.

"You can turn off your alarm. I'll let Jack now you'll be in late tomorrow."

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><p>Ianto loved his new flat. It was on Falcon Drive, in an area which overlooked the bay. It was a serious change to his last place, modern while the last flat had been Victorian, spacious while his old flat was long and narrow and it had a spare bedroom which Rhiannon had assured him that she would be putting to use by having the kids stay over to give her a night off occasionally. Possibly the best part was that he could see the Millennium Centre from his window, and it literally took him five minutes to get to work in the morning, removing the need for a car. Ianto had never liked owning a car. In London it wasn't worth it as you spent half your wages fuelling and taxing the thing only to sit in traffic and end up late to work anyway. It was a necessity when he lived at his old flat because of the distance it was from the city centre, but after he had moved he was more than happy to give it to Rhiannon as she would get more use out of it.<p>

It was 7:25 and he had told everyone to arrive around 7:30. Most of the food was already laid out on his table – as his dining room wasn't big enough to seat the entire team plus Rhys, his sister and her two kids he had laid it out like a buffet with plastic plates to minimise clean-up. There were plates with pizza, various types of rolls and half of the table was covered in desserts and drinks. In the kitchen there was a huge pot of chilli bubbling away to be ready about eight.

At 7:30 on the dot, there was a quiet knock on his door, and before he even got it open he new that that knock belonged to Tosh. She greeted him with a smile and a plant. It looked like a bonsai but it was blue with an orange trunk. Holding it up to him, she stepped across the threshold.

"It came through the rift while you were away. It was half dead, but I was looking after the plants and I thought that you might like it."

"It's gorgeous Tosh. It'll go well in the living room. Why don't we go look for a spot?"

Ianto had barely had time to take Tosh's coat and he hadn't even closed the door when a young girl with a mass of red curls came bounding around the corner and launched herself into a hug with her uncle. Mica had been the last of his family to really trust him after he came back from such a long absence. The girl was an extrovert, but extremely observant and a good judge of most situations for a six year old.

"Uncle Ianto! Thank you for my dress!" Ianto had bought her the red tartan dress she was wearing because Rhiannon had one just like it as a little girl. Rhi had loved that dress and had worn it until their mam had thrown it out because there was no way it would fit any more. If Mica got half of the use out of this dress that her mother got from hers then it was well worth the money he paid for it.

Rhiannon and David arrived abut a minute after Mica, evidently they had opted to walk up to the building and hadn't run to the front door like crazy people. Within ten minutes everyone else had arrived, everyone that was except for Jack.

Ianto had set David and Owen the task of choosing some music, and within five minutes the pair had gotten into a playful argument over bands which David was informing Owen were "old and boring."

Everyone else was in the living room. It was large and Ianto had pushed the coffee table to the side of the room, creating a larger space. Rhiannon had quickly located his Wii, which he was almost embarrassed to own, and within a minute of setting it up everyone was engrossed in one of the dancing games. Tosh had taken off her heels to play and she and Rhys held the controllers while the others either watched or joined in in the background.

Eight o'clock rolled around and there was still no sign of Jack. If he waited any longer to serve the food then the rice would end up ruined so he decided to push ahead. Though, it kind of hurt that Jack was the only member of the team not there. He thought that the older man had forgiven his betrayal, or at least was on the way to forgiving him but him not turning up when Ianto had been so sure that the team had accepted him back again made him doubt himself and re awoke the old feelings of worry that he had about Jack not trusting him.

The night was a huge success. Rhys was introduced to the team and perhaps would now be a little less hostile towards the job Gwen ran off to in the middle of the night. Rhiannon was glad to see that Ianto had some friends at work. She was worried about him for a while there. Owen, though originally pissed that he was missing a night of prime drinking/pulling opportunities, seemed to genuinely enjoy himself. He had taken a shine to Mica after she explained that when she grew up she wanted to be a doctor...or an astronaut...or both.

While all of the adults seemed to enjoy the drinks Ianto had prepared – he just so happened to be a master of cocktails as well as coffee owing to a bar job while he was at university – it seemed that Ianto and Tosh both had a few too many by the time the night was over. Gwen and Owen found it hilarious that the two quietest members of the team were suddenly talkative and extremely competitive at the wii dance game. At one point Tosh had tried to push Ianto over, causing him to lose points for an entire chorus while he righted himself.

But no matter how much fun they were having, none of the Torchwood team could deny their surprise and disappointment that Jack hadn't turned up.

* * *

><p>The next morning Ianto Jones was rudely awakened at 5am by his work alarm. After scowling at the beeping, flashing device designed to be as irritating as possible he was about to pick it up and throw it at the wall when he heard a groan from beside him. He hit the snooze button and turned in bed – immediately regretting the action when his stomach protested – to see Toshiko Sato, half asleep, wearing one of his t-shirts and curled up next to him. He stared at her confused in his half-woken state and she opened her eyes, blinking away the sleep. She put a hand to her pounding head and looked at Ianto in shock. She could see that he was bare-chested and she didn't recognise the t-shirt she was wearing but it smelled the same as the sheets she had been lying under so she could only assume that it was Ianto's. What she couldn't remember was why she was in Ianto's bed, wearing his clothes, with the worst hangover she'd had in years.<p>

The pair avoided each others eyes as they got out of the bed, Ianto nearly falling out as his legs were tangled in the sheets. Despite their situation Tosh couldn't help but giggle, it was infectious and a minute later they were both laughing uncontrollably. They managed to arrange who is taking a shower first through a series of hand gestures and minimal conversation. Ianto quickly irons the outfit Tosh had been wearing yesterday so that she could wear it to go into work and change into the clothes she kept there once they arrived if she wanted. He waited for her to come out of the bathroom then indicated where her clothes were and told her to get anything she wanted from the kitchen while he went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Seven minutes after he went in he walked back out, in a clean suit with his hair done and was ready to go aside from shoes.

After they officially had nothing left to fuss over, Tosh and Ianto were forced to face the giant elephant in the room. Tosh sat down on a stool by the breakfast bar facing Ianto.

"So, erm, last night..."

The Welshman, despite looking a little green about the gills turned a light shade of pink.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I really don't drink and I just-"

"No, no it was my fault I have no idea how it happened."

"Well we kind of..." The next word was said in unison and caused both of them to crack up again.

"SNOGGED."

* * *

><p><em><strong>The night before<strong>_

Ianto's guests had been slowly trickling out for the last half hour, it was after midnight and David had to carry his sleeping sister into their cab. Everyone's goodbyes had mainly consisted of a "great party Ianto" and Rhys had even asked him for the recipe for the Chilli he had made. At 1 AM, the only people left standing were Ianto and Tosh, who had decided to have one last dance off on his Wii game before he called Tosh a cab. It was going well and they were both going for high scores when Tosh slipped on a small puddle of beer caused by Owen's dropped can earlier. The Nylon of her tights didn't create much friction on his laminate wood floor and she was resigned to the fall she was heading into when Ianto tried to catch her around her waist. Drunk as he was though, he had ended up falling with her and they landed in a heap on the floor, Ianto's arm underneath Tosh.

Rather than putting his weight on top of the small woman, he rolled and Tosh rolled with him. She ended up on top of him giggling like a schoolgirl.

Neither of them knew who started it or why it happened but suddenly they were kissing, and kissing led to touching, and touching led to hands being in places they really shouldn't be. Ianto let out a moan and the two of them froze, realizing what they were doing and who they were with. Two seconds later they were sat a few feet apart on the floor, bright red and completely sober. After a few tense minutes Ianto decided to break the silence.

"So erm. We have to be at work in a few hours. You should just crash here."

"Okay."

"Fine."

"Right then..."

* * *

><p>At 6:30am Ianto and Tosh walked through the door to the Tourist Office, Ianto unlocking it and holding it open for Tosh. He offered to make her a coffee and power up the HUB while she set up her computer so they could get started analysing the weather data they had collated yesterday. Tosh wasn't usually in this early so it wasn't strange for her, but Ianto found it odd that the HUB lights were on at this time of the morning. Usually, the only thing illuminating the cavernous base during the teams off-hours were the emergency lights and the light from Jacks office. In order to keep Torchwood's energy use as low as possible so that when they used their own generators, they were barely visible on the city power grid but it meant they couldn't run on full power 247 or they'd burn out the temper-mental generators

Tosh headed straight in the direction of her desk. Ianto put on some coffee. While he waited for it to brew, starting his stopwatch so he could time it to exactly six minutes and thirty seconds, he walked around the HUB looking for evidence of his boss. Jack moved like a ninja so Ianto knew that he wouldn't hear him moving around, but as Ianto headed towards the captain's office he saw that that was the least of his problems.

In the medical bay, lying on the autopsy table in a manner that suggested he had once been sitting, lay a deathly pale Jack Harkness in a pool of his own blood. The sticky red substance covered the floor of the entire area and there was no way that he had survived that much blood loss.

"JACK!" Ianto was at his side in an instant, he checked for a pulse and was rewarded almost instantly with a steady, rest rate heartbeat. His fingers at the older man's throat caused him to stir from is sleep.

"hmm...I think I'm in heaven, are all of the angels as pretty as you Ianto?"

Ianto smirked. "That's harassment sir. If you're okay I was about to make some coffee. I'll bring you something to eat as well. The last time you lost this much blood, you were anaemic for days after. If you want I could set up a transfusion kit. I'm type O."

"I'll be fine, but I could die for a cup of your amazing coffee."

"Very funny sir."

"I thought so."

Back in the kitchen and he heard Jack wash down the autopsy bay with a hose. An advantage of working in a place which is entirely underground and mainly tiled is that blood cleans up easily, which with Jack around is pretty important. When his six and a half minutes were up, he poured the coffee and took Tosh her cup first then took Jack's down to him, as he turned to leave Jack called him back.

"Ianto?"

"Yes sir?"

"I'm sorry about last night."

"I think being dead counts as a good enough excuse for missing my party Sir."

"S'pose it does, did I miss anything good?" Ianto blushed and Jack flashed Ianto his trademark smile and knew that he was forgiven. He'd never met anyone that the smile didn't work on...now time to find a shirt that didn't have weevil claw slashes down the back.


	5. A wierd incestuous family

**Chapter 5: A weird incestuous family**

* * *

><p><strong>AN Just a bit of a filler before we head off to the Countrycide in chapter 6, I didn't want to cover the whole of 'small worlds' so just made this little sweetie for you, Beka x**

* * *

><p>Ianto was confused when the team got back. Owen, Tosh and Gwen went straight to their desks and started typing up their reports, something Ianto usually had to threaten them with Decaf for. He wasn't complaining, but it was odd and odd in Torchwood usually meant something bad. An hour later the entire team had gone home, barely having said said two words since they got in, not even a goodnight as they walked out, just the alarms on the cog door and then silence.<p>

Ianto went down to the archives to file away the reports the team had just finished and to have a quick read to figure out that the hell had happened to make them all so stoic. He skimmed Tosh's report and learned about faeries that weren't fairies. He read Owen's report and learned about all the people who had been killed: the man at the police station, the old woman who was a friend of Jack's, and a middle aged man from the suburbs who was killed at his own party. Finally, Ianto read Gwen's report, which told him how Jack had handed over a little girl to these creatures who threatened to destroy the entire world for her if they had to. The young archivist put the files into a brown folder displaying the correct date and added an electronic tag so that if they searched for "faeries" it would redirect them here. As soon as he was done he picked up the folder and carried it up to Jack's office for him to sign off before he could officially file it.

Reaching Jack's office he heard the sounds of an Ella Fitzgerald record coming from inside.

_It begins to tell,_  
><em>round midnight, midnight.<em>  
><em>I do pretty well till after sundown.<em>  
><em>Supper time, I'm feeling sad;<em>  
><em>but it really gets bad,<em>  
><em>round midnight.<em>

"Sir?" Ianto took a cautious step into the office, and got the sight he knew would be waiting as soon as he heard the song start. Jack only ever broke out this record when he was utterly miserable. As he predicted Jack was slumped on the couch, a box of what looked like old photos on his knee and a bottle of scotch his left hand. For some reason, the scotch bottle belonged in his left hand, but he always held bourbon in his right.

"Jack?" He questioned again and sat down next to the captain on the couch. When Jack finally looked up, his eyes were red and he looked like death. Ianto took the bottle away from Jack, who really didn't want to give it up. After about a minute of silence, Ianto decided to open up to Jack in hopes that he would return the favour.

"After Lisa, the first thing I did was drink. And it doesn't help you know. All it does is make you feel a hell of a lot worse in the morning." Ianto tried to put his hand on Jack's shoulder the way his body language book said was supposed to be supportive, but Jack shrugged it off, he stood – if shakily and went to lean on his desk. The drunk captain pulled a photo out of the box and tossed it at Ianto, then another, then another, and another until the floor was covered in pieces of paper with a thousand smiling faces on them.

"You think you're the expert because you lost someone? I lost them, every single one of them. Look." He picked up one of the photographs. It was black and white and showed a young woman in a dress that looked like something from during world war two.

"This is Estelle. She died today. She died and she was eighty six years old! I still remember her as the eighteen year old girl I met in the summer of forty-one. So yeah, you lost your girlfriend but every one of these photographs is someone I loved, someone who died."

"Jack I..."

"Look, I am not having you telling me how I can or can't grieve. This is how I do it, scotch and that low dose RETCON. Just leave me alone."

"No sir, I cant do that."

Ianto stood and walked to the record player where he swapped the record for another one. After he set it moving, the office was filled with the sounds of Glenn Miller.

"Moonlit serenade? Are you trying to seduce me Mr. Jones?"

"Hey I like this one. It's better than the emo-jazz parade you were throwing yourself when I walked in. Seriously Jack, there are other Ella Fitzgerald songs to play when you're depressed."

Ianto picked up the bottle he had wrestled away from Jack earlier and poured two large measures. He handed one to the depressed man on the couch and sat down beside him. He told the old man about what happened while he was on suspension. How his first instinct to get blind stinking drunk and give up. He told him how Rhiannon had forced him to get up when he didn't want to in the morning and how the time he spent with his niece and nephew was what really convinced him that life was still worth living.

"So family? Children? That's your solution? I couldn't hold on to my family. I've got no one."

"Come on Jack." Ianto stepped out of his comfort zone in pulling his boss against his side; Jack took the opportunity to relieve Ianto of his scotch and down it. "We're about as close to family as it gets. The five of us have all seen things, faced things that most people couldn't even imagine. You can't do that without forming some pretty tight bonds."

"I broke it. I gave those monsters a little girl today, Yan. Did you see how the others looked at me, like they would have given up the entire world for the sake of one little girl? I really am the monster you said I was." Ianto felt a pang of guilt in his chest, he had almost forgotten that he had called Jack that during that horrible night when Lisa ran wild in the HUB.

"Jack Harkness, you make the hard decisions so that none of us have to, and you carry it all with you. That doesn't make you a monster. It makes you-"

Ianto was cut off by lips crashing into his own. He reacted instinctively, placing a hand behind the other man's head and leaning into the contact, relishing in the closeness after so many months of a cold bed and lonely nights. Strangely, at the time he didn't even register that he should find it strange, kissing another man. It didn't feel bad, just different. Stubbly. Eventually when Jack pulled back, they were both mussed and breathless.

"Wow, we are one weird incestuous family."

Jack couldn't help but laugh at that "Hey, you're the one who put on Glenn Miller."


	6. Countrycide

**Chapter 6: Countrycide**

* * *

><p><strong>AN Once again returning readers may notice that this was once two chapters but in the revamp I decided to put them together to for one giant chapter of awesomeness**

* * *

><p>"<strong>Seventeen disappearances within the last five months, the police are clueless."<strong>

That was it, seventeen missing people had brought the team of Torchwood three out to the Brecon Beacons to investigate. While their medic grumbled about the smell of grass and Toshiko put everyone off their "hepatitis burgers" Ianto was just glad to be outside. Long hours underground didn't agree with him and though his creamy white complexion seemed to contradict it he loved being outdoors; more than that he loved camping. It was the only type of holiday he had ever been on, so he still associated tents with school holidays, barbecues and ice-cream.

Ianto had decided to put the girls in one tent, the supplies and equipment in an ops tent and him, Jack and Owen could share the third. With the way Owen was grumbling and Jack's lewd jokes he was beginning to regret that decision. The first thing he did after they decided on a spot was pitched the supply tent, and left Tosh and Gwen to load the food into it. He stifled a laugh when Jack commented to Gwen that what they were unpacking was all the food they had with them in response to her snacking on anything and everything as she unloaded it from the SUV. Gwen just threw one of the food packets at him which hit Owen on the back of the head and caused a minor food fight.

Toshiko had tried to be helpful and put up the girls' tent but was floundering. It really didn't help that the instructions were in German. Ianto was more than happy to put it up for her and distracted Toshiko with the _very_ important job of checking that all of the ops tent pins were in the ground properly. Which of course they were. Ianto Jones did not do shoddy tent assembly.

Owen spent twenty minutes kicking the bag that their tent was in while Jack was holding the instructions upside down complaining about modern tents with their new fangled doo-hickies and whats-its.

"That's a tent pole sir." He knew Jack had been around for a while but tent poles were hardly hi-tech

"You say tent pole. I say doo-hickey."

"We should have just gone to a hotel."

"Owen, if you mention hotels one more time I swear there'll be one more person disappearing from the beacons tonight."

The pair proceeded to put up the tent while Owen "supervised", slowed down slightly by Jack's constant innuendo every time Ianto asked him to "hold his pole."

Within an hour all of the tents were up and an amazing amount of equipment had been unloaded form the SUV. The team was impressed at Ianto's real world Tetris skills. Gwen commented on this, and she was rewarded with a cup of Ianto's special hot chocolate. He had just handed out the first round of hot drinks when Gwen decided to play a game.

"Okay, who was the last person you snogged? Mine was Rhys."

"There's a surprise," Owen snarked, his ego still a little bruised that the tea boy had had to help him put up the tent.

"Ianto" Tosh's answer caused the entire team to go silent. Gwen's jaw dropped, a piece of biscuit falling out of her mouth, and Jack, after spitting out the coffee he had been drinking, was oddly stoic.

"After the party the other week, but we were drunk so it doesn't count."

"Wait, didn't you come in in the same clothes you were wearing to the party the morning after?" Gwen just had to say that. Ianto blushed, and for a moment he thought his life just couldn't get any worse. He was wrong.

"So, Tosh was the last person you snogged then Ianto?" Yes, his life had just got worse. The flush on his cheeks deepened and he glanced guiltily at Jack. The look didn't go unnoticed by Gwen and Owen and they collapsed into a fit of cheers and giggles. Ianto took one last look at them and retreated to the tent to the sound of Owen yelling, "Way to go tea boy!"

By the time Jack had smacked Owen around the head and followed Ianto into the tent the young man was crouched at the back of the tent trying to set up a camp bed to distract himself from the hot stinging tears in his eyes. Jack stood behind him, his head ducked to accommodate the tent roof then crouched down to place a hand on the other man's waist and put his head on Ianto's shoulder. A second later he almost fell onto his face as Ianto got up suddenly and moved as far away as the tent would allow.

"Yan, it was just a game. If it'll make you feel better I'll let you shoot Owen."

Ianto just exploded, all of the confusion and humiliation he felt he directed at Jack as anger,

"Don't call me that, you don't get to use that name." His voice cracked a little at that. "It's been six weeks Jack. My last kiss should have been with Lisa, not with Tosh and certainly not with you!"

Jack, showing his usual lack of self restraint, matched the volume of the younger man's voice.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean eh?"

"I'm not gay Jack! I love Lisa. I loved her and you're my boss and I _**shouldn't **_want you like this. I just... I don't know." Ianto curled his knees into his chest where he now sat on the floor, barely able to see Jack through the tears in his eyes.

"21st century men! Why do you have to attach labels to _everything! _You like me. That doesn't make you gay, it makes you human, and so what if I'm your boss. I hired you based on how good you looked in a suit didn't I?" Jack took one last look at Ianto as he stormed out of the tent. "Come out when you've grown up a little."

* * *

><p>Eventually, Ianto managed to calm himself down suitably and made his way out of the tent. He couldn't face looking at Jack so he busied himself cleaning the mugs left abandoned on the ground from earlier. He had just put them back into their correct storage box when Tosh came running into the ops tent.<p>

"Gwen and Owen found a body. Jack said to bring a full forensic kit." She disappeared as quickly as she had arrived and Ianto was left carrying two heavy cases of forensic supplies. He wouldn't have let Tosh carry it anyway but it would have been nice for someone to have offered. Finally making it to the clearing where the rest of the team were assembled the only greeting he got was a "where have you been" from Jack. Hardly in the mood to argue, Ianto set about cordoning off a slightly larger area than usual. This corpse was pretty icky and he didn't want to be anywhere near it. He honestly thought that this was one of the most horrible alien attacks he'd ever seen and didn't want to meet the creature who could do that to a person. There was nothing on the body to suggest what kind of creature had killed the person lying on the forest floor and all they knew was that the creature was intelligent as it had moved the body from its feeding location.

Ianto hovered a few feet away from the team, hoping to avoid them even though they were in close quarters for as long as this mission took. He was the first to hear the roar of engines as the SUV trashed their camp-site and it became apparent that the body had been a diversion. As much as he thought he had his OCD tendencies under control he visibly cringed at the sight of their tents in shambles after the vehicle had driven over the supporting poles, maybe Owen would get his wish for a B&B after all if they could find a way back to civilisation. He gave the information on the SUV's location to Jack while still managing to avoid eye contact and the captain stood in front of them with what Ianto hoped was a plan to get them home.

"Who fancies a walk?"

* * *

><p>Tosh and Ianto had been walking in tense silence for about fifteen minutes since Jack had suggested that the team split up to cover more ground. To Ianto, it just seemed that he wanted to put as much distance between them as possible. This trip had started out as a welcome opportunity to work with the team and get out of the HUB. Now, Ianto just wanted to go back to being the invisible tea boy As far as he was concerned, the sooner they caught whatever it was they were looking for the better.<p>

Looking down at the device in his hand it seemed that they were getting pretty close to the SUV, or at least to its tracking device.

"It's just half a mile up there," he pointed in a vaguely south-easterly direction, hoping that they would be able to find the SUV and get out of there before the situation became any _more_ awkward.

"Ianto, I'm sorry." This was the conversation Ianto didn't want to have. He increased his pace a little and while Tosh attempted to match his stride her legs were significantly shorter and she remained a few paces behind.

"Ianto!" Clearly she wasn't taking the hint. "It was Gwen's stupid game, we didn't mean to upset you."

Ianto stopped suddenly and turned to face her, causing her to walk straight into his chest.

"I'll be fine Tosh." he put his arms around her and gave her a quick squeeze in an attempt to reassure her then stepped back with his arms extended and his hands on her shoulders, "Come on, we'd better get the SUV back. I've seen how you get when you're in technology withdrawal. You're worse than Jack on Decaf coffee." The pair of them shuddered at the memory of the last time Jack had gone without caffeine and started walking in the direction of the buildings they could just about see in the distance.

They covered the remaining distance to the small collection of buildings in under ten minutes and split up to circle the building. Ianto instantly regretted it. The place was eerie and seemed to be abandoned, and he was getting more creeped out by the minute, to the point where he almost shot Tosh when she came around the corner. From their initial sweep, it didn't look as if whoever took the SUV was anywhere in the area, so Ianto walked a few metres away from the buildings to try to scout the direction they must have left in. There was nothing. From what he could see he and Tosh were completely alone on the Beacons. Resigned to the fact that whoever had stolen the SUV was smart enough not to leave an obvious trail, he turned back to where he assumed Tosh would still be standing. When she wasn't there he figured that she must have gone to see if she could force the door on the other side of the building. When she wasn't there either he started to worry, and worry quickly gave way to panic.

The basic training he'd received at Torchwood One told him that he should keep his weapon ready, keep a calm head and secure any and all hostiles before going to the aid of his team. However, his job as a junior researcher and then glorified tea boy had hardly caused him to use this training very often, so though he walked gun first it was shaking so much that there was no way he would ever hit a stationary target, never mind an attacker. Not that he would have been able to use the weapon correctly even with no pressure on the Hub's firing range, not after what happened with Lisa. Just the feel of the cold metal in his sweaty hands had his pulse echoing in his ears. It must have been that which stopped him from hearing whatever it was that creeped up behind him, because the next thing he new he was falling backwards and his world had gone black.

* * *

><p>After waking up in what he could only assume was some kind of cellar, Ianto tried to stay calm and assess the situation. His head hurt like hell and he raised a hand to feel the lump left by his attacker. This trip was turning into a nightmare and as he felt himself start to hyperventilate he did what he always did: he counted, sets of four "one, two, three, four" over and over until his breathing stabilised and his vision became clear again.<p>

Calmer now, but far from relaxed, Ianto located a weapon, and a few minutes later Tosh was awake. It was crazy, she really seemed to thrive on the danger and he couldn't help but feel a little pathetic that a girl was able to cope with a situation like this better than he could. He should be protecting Tosh, not the other way around. What Tosh hadn't told him was that after she was released from the UNIT holding facility Jack had taught her to escape from almost any kind of cell which helped her to deal with the claustrophobia that she still struggled with from time to time.

While she was a little miffed that the door was going to take a while to get down she wasn't about to give up and wait to be rescued like Ianto. Though she really wished that she hadn't pushed him to look for a way out when he found that monstrous pile of shoes – god it was like one of those old photographs from Auschwitz - and even worse was the fridge. She didn't think that she'd ever forget the smell, even if it wasn't for the severed foot she wouldn't have doubted for a moment what type of meat that was.

This seemed to be the last straw for Ianto, the last threads of control he had had slipped through his fingertips at the sight of that flesh in the fridge.

"I'm not supposed to be here Tosh. I'm the one who makes coffee and fixes the reports and cleans up the shit. I don't do fieldwork and guns and...oh god I'm going to die…I-" he slipped into Welsh then and wrapped his arms around himself. Tosh walked over to him and hugged him tight, though she wanted to tell him they'd be fine she honestly wasn't sure that they were getting out of this one. Even after all of the things she had seen with Torchwood, seeing the remains of all those people reduced to nothing more than steak in the fridge had her scared.

In the Kitchen-come-slaughterhouse Ianto stood horrified as the scared little woman with the gun turned out to be in on the entire thing. The last shred of hope he had about getting out of this alive was gone. Today had turned out to be nothing like he expected it to be; he got into a fight with Jack, the team were stranded in the Beacons and the "aliens" they had come to catch turned out to be a village of psychopathic cannibals. Of everything he had seen with Torchwood, this was the worst. He could deal with psychos and killers as long as they were alien, or at least humans controlled by aliens. But regular people shouldn't be like this. Their humanity made them that much more evil because they had no compassion, no guilt over the deaths of all those people.

While the villager made his speech about how everyone was just meat, he pawed at Toshiko's body and Ianto could see the fear and humiliation in her eyes. If he could do one thing he would hurt that disgusting man for that. A minute later he got his chance – though perhaps a head-butt wasn't the smartest decision he ever made as he found himself dizzy and quickly pushed onto his knees. Still he'd done it. Tosh had got away, even if he died here in this disgusting kitchen that was a small victory.

* * *

><p>Running through the woods, Toshiko's bare arms were scratched and bruised by the twigs and branches in her path. She could hear the man from the house somewhere behind her but she didn't stop and hide like her instincts were screaming to. She ran for ten minutes and could feel her muscles burning and hear the man behind her wheeze and stop. She kept going until she reached a clearing and ran straight into Owen's chest.<p>

Owen had been supporting Gwen's weight as they made slow progress back to the main road. Wherever the hell Harkness had got to he had better have a damned good excuse! He heard a noise coming from the forest and drew his gun only to have it knocked from his hands when a very dirty Toshiko Sato collided with his chest.

"Tosh, Christ what happened to you?"

"Ianto…Villagers…Cannibals…" She was panting heavily and looked ready to drop, but he didn't have time to process what she had said before a Land Rover with POLICE in both English and Welsh across the bonnet came down the road, its headlights rendering the three of them temporarily blind.

God, Tosh couldn't believe that she'd fallen for it again. It seemed that everyone in the area was a part of this disgusting group. But honestly, she never would have assumed that a police officer would be the one covering it up. She could tell that Gwen was a little hurt. the ex-policewoman was very proud of the job, and it was shocking to see someone abusing the uniform like that. When Owen and Gwen had their guns taken and they all had their hands bound behind them they were herded into the back of the car and were soon back at the house Tosh had escaped from under half an hour ago.

"Where's Ianto?" Toshiko's immediate concern was for the friend who had given her the chance of freedom. She couldn't see him anywhere, and she was afraid that he'd been killed.

With some difficulty, one of the villagers dragged a man with a sack on his head into the room. The man wasn't putting up a fight in any way but that meant that he was effectively a dead weight to be pulled up onto his knees.

For a moment after the sack was removed, Ianto was confused by the bright lights of the room, but slowly he was able to focus on the scene in front of him. He could see the horrified faces of his team so he could only assume that the beating he had taken was evident when looking at him. He couldn't even feel his injuries any more. He just felt warm and numb and more than anything, he wanted to go to sleep and forget the entire day. Just as his head began to drop, pushing against the blade of the cleaver at his throat and creating a superficial cut on his white neck, he was forced back into consciousness by an enormous crash when a tractor of all things came crashing through the farmhouse wall. Ianto's ears registered a series of loud bangs and he watched as the cleaver at his throat fell to the floor .The man who had been holding it lay next to it, his lifeless blue eyes looking right at Ianto.

It went oddly quiet and without the rough hands holding him upright Ianto felt himself falling sideways. He just lay there and watched as several pairs of feet came rushing towards him. The first was a pair of black army surplus boots and this person untied his hands and removed the dirty cloth gag from his mouth. The second was a pair of expensive trainers and this person forced open his eyelids to shine a light into them and rolled him onto his back. He guessed that it was Owen.

* * *

><p>Half an hour later, three ambulances and a dozen police cars were parked in the village. The sun was coming up and to Gwen, it felt like the entire trip could have been a horrible dream if it wasn't for the constant pain in her stomach. Ianto was lying in the back of an ambulance and according to Owen he was in shock. Toshiko was talking softly to him, thanking him for protecting her even though it had caused him to be hurt more. Jack made his way over to the ambulance, sitting down on the seat Toshiko had abandoned in favour of sitting at the edge of the bed Ianto was lying on. Seeing his boss Ianto tried to sit but was immediately pushed back down by Tosh. Jack gave her a look and she reluctantly left Ianto's side and stepped out of the ambulance so the pair could talk.<p>

Jack immediately occupied her spot on the edge of the bed and took in the visible damage; Ianto's face was severely bruised. There was a small bandage on his neck, and he was topless, but every inch of his chest was black with bruising and there were bandages over several of his ribs. He couldn't see the man's legs under the blanket, but Owen had informed him that Ianto's left knee had been dislocated and had been put right. All Jack wanted to do was hold him tight and let him know that he was safe but he wasn't sure where they stood after their argument in the tent earlier. Ianto obviously regretted what happened between them in his office last week and though he didn't know why, that hurt. He turned to leave but found that Ianto was holding onto the sleeve of his greatcoat, the younger man's hand was in contact with the soft skin of his wrist and Jack wasn't sure how he had not noticed earlier.

"Ianto?"

"sir, I..." he faltered, not being able to articulate what he was feeling. Jack took his hand and gave him a minute to figure out the words - Ianto knew what he wanted to say but he wasn't sure how Jack was going to react. Their fight earlier had only been the tip of his iceberg of insecurities and to be honest, he wasn't sure if he was making the right decision right now. He was sure that a conclusion he came to while being beaten half to death by a group of crazed cannibals couldn't be logically sound. However he was sure that if he didn't do it now he would only talk himself out of it so ignoring the part of his brain that was still warring with itself in confusion he pulled himself back into a seated position, moved his hand from Jack's sleeve to his lapel and pulled the other man towards him.

He saw the surprise in Jacks eyes as Jack saw the mischief shine in Ianto's. capturing Jacks lips with his own he hoped to communicate his feelings through physical contact: after today Ianto Jones had decided that attaching a label to himself as gay or straight wasn't making him happy, and it wasn't going to change his fate in any major way, Torchwood agents had an extremely short lifespan and Ianto wasn't going to waste any more time denying himself what he wanted.

Reluctantly, the pair pulled apart offer several minutes as with Ianto's broken ribs, the ragged breaths he had been managing to take during the kiss had left him sore and as he tried to breathe deep and stabilise his airflow he found himself collapsed into a coughing fit. Jack rubbed circles on his back in a soothing pattern until it subsided then met the eyes of the gorgeous young man ( bruised and broken as he was) who had just asked him without words for another chance.

"Yan... I mean..." Ianto smiled, that had been Lisa's name for him so he had been shocked to hear Jack say it that morning. but now, rather than reminding him of what he lost it gave him the same sense of security and happiness that he got when Lisa had used it.

"Yan is fine" he smiled at his captain "I'm sorry for how I freaked out this morning"

"sorry I said I hired you just because you look good in a suit"

"I may still punch you for that one!" Jack feigned shock, but he knew that he was forgiven, they had both said things they regretted but now he hoped they could get back on track. Once Ianto had come back from his suspension Jack had decided that he wanted Ianto in the field and after last week he had decided that he wanted him in his bed too, now it seemed that everything was falling into place

"so, now that you've got that off your chest was there something you wanted to tell me ?"

"Sir, I-"

"Ianto-"

They laughed, though Ianto winced at the pain in his ribs at the action.

"You know, I think we should be taking you out on rift alerts. You did a pretty good job of saving Tosh today."

"Jack, have you seen Tosh? There are bruises in the shape of that bastard's hands all over her arms."

"Yan," Jack took one of Ianto's hands and placed it over one of the bandages on his stomach "A couple of bruises are a hell of a lot better than she would have had if she had stayed there. Look at yourself and remember what you saved Tosh from."

"I still don't want to go on alerts." Though he had been advised not to, Ianto pulled himself into a seated position and leaned back against the plastic wall of the ambulance. "I didn't get a chance today but I wouldn't have been much of a shot. I'm not putting one of you in danger because I can't pull the trigger when the time comes."

Jack thought about that as he stood and exited the vehicle, watching as Tosh jumped back into her previous position as if Jack had never been there. He wanted Ianto in the field, but he didn't want him going out there if he wasn't able to protect himself. Maybe he should give him some lessons. Hm…Jack's mind played out some pretty interesting scenes at the thought of Ianto being his student - _oh the things I could teach him._


	7. Okay TeaBoy! Kit off

**Chapter 7: Okay TeaBoy! Kit off**

* * *

><p>Ianto spent two days at Cardiff Spire Private Hospital until he tired of his doctors' constant prodding and his boss taking up permanent residence at his bedside and discharged himself, he had waited until Jack went for coffee and literally made a run for it - well it was more of a limp but his knee was still sore from being dislocated. Owen was furious and insisted upon bi-weekly check-ups until he deemed Ianto healed and to Ianto's disappointment, Jack agreed with Owen and every three days he found himself stripped to his boxers so the young doctor could scan and tell him the same thing:<p>

"Healing nicely, just want to keep you under obs for a while longer"

By time he got to his last check-up Ianto had given up fighting Owen, he had just come up from the archives to tidy up after the girls had gone home and was surprised to find Owen still at work.

"Tea boy" Owen's voice carried up to him from the med bay "down here and kit off" Ianto sighed and made his way down the steps. The med bay was very brightly lit and designed in such a way that Ianto felt very exposed whenever he came in for an exam, his feeling of unease really wasn't helped by the fact that by the time that he had removed his jacket and tie he could feel eyes on his back. This was another thing he had become used to during Owen's examinations so he addressed the voyeur without turning around.

"You know sir, if you want to see me naked you've only got to ask, or you could at least be discreet and watch on the monitor like a regular stalker, but could you please stop asking Owen to drag me down here just so you ogle. I'm fine"

"Hey," Owen interjected "am I not the doctor in the room? I'll be the one to decide if you're fine or not"

Ianto quickly undressed and within two minutes he was sat on the cold exam table in nothing but his boxers while Owen scanned him with a modified piece of alien Tech Tosh had made for him last year. Once the young doctor was satisfied that Ianto's internal injuries had healed he took a blood sample and put it into one of the many diagnostic machines to process. Honestly Ianto didn't see why he had to strip for these exams, he could have just rolled up his sleeve for the blood test and the scans were completely non-invasive.

"Can I go now?" Ianto said sounding bored and looked up at Jack who was sat rather dangerously on top of the railing overlooking the med bay "I really don't see why you had to be here, I could have told you that I was fine"

"yes, you'd be fine until I tried to schedule some firearms training then you'd get an awful pain in your ribs or your knee would act up or..." Jack acted out the injuries, dramatically clasping his chest, then his knee

"right you two shut it!" Owen was getting snippy "the quicker we get these results the quicker we can all get off" Jack bursts out laughing and Ianto rolled his eyes while reaching for his shirt, Owen just looks confused.

"Yan, don't bother putting your clothes back on, Owen wants a threesome" by this point he was laughing so hard that he was in danger of falling off the railing.

"Wh..What?" Owen looked at Ianto for answers "where the hell is he getting that from"

Ianto stood and continued to dress, he was so used to Jack's sexual humour that it didn't even make him blush like it used to – much to Jack's disappointment. He turned to Owen and explained the situation. "you know you can't mention getting off around Jack, he's got the sense of humour of a child"

"a weird perverted child"

"HEY!"

* * *

><p>Ianto's blood work came back clean and Owen left quickly after that, Jack managed to calm himself down to a quiet giggle and Ianto set abut making them both a coffee. Exactly nine and half minutes after he started to heat the water, the beverages were ready and he put them on a tray with a few of Jack's favourite biscuits and carried them to his office. Opening the door he found it empty, which was odd as he was sure that he had seen him up here a minute ago.<p>

"Jack?" he called out and placed the cup of coffee in it's usual place on the desk, when he did he noticed a piece of card folded with his name on the front. Frowning he opened the card and read It's contents. YAN, MEET ME ON THE SHOOTING RANGE, J.

Ianto gulped, now that Owen had declared him fit for active duty Jack wasn't giving him a chance to talk his way out of any more lessons. reluctantly he made his way down the stairs to the shooting range where he knew Jack was waiting, the coffee he had carefully prepared left abandoned on the corner of the desk.

The Torchwood shooting range was really just an old tunnel, Victorian and tiled like the majority of the HUB. Ianto was surprised to find that Jack had already set up the targets, but then he probably didn't want to give Ianto any excuse to delay their lesson. As promised Jack had been training Ianto as a field agent for the past four weeks, though Ianto had managed to beg off many of his lessons due to the fact that he was still healing...well, that and a little distraction technique which involved him wearing red shirts every day for a week just to watch the effect it had on his boss. But it seemed that his time had run out, and as he stood in front of the table of weaponry staring at the cold dangerous pieces of metal he felt his palms begin to sweat, his mind was screaming at him to get out of here but as he took a step backwards he found that his path was blocked.

"Yan, you're on my toe" Ianto jumped forwards so quickly he almost stumbled and Jack let out an involuntary laugh.

"Jesus, Jack. are you trying to kill me?"

"Jumpy tonight aren't we?" jack took a step forwards and put his arms around Ianto's waist "we're not putting off this lesson any longer and you need to relax" Jack had been patient with Ianto for the last month, in all aspects of their relationship: at work he didn't push the issue of his training, even when Ianto's attempts to distract him were painfully obvious, and in private he hadn't let them go too far after Ianto had got over his minor crisis of sexuality Jack had found him to be both eager and deliciously curious about exploring the all the new things he felt with Jack but Jack didn't want to do anything until he knew that Ianto was healed and ready.

On the table he had laid out a number of different firearms, all loaded and ready. Moving to the table he picked up the first, a black 9mm which was standard issue for all Torchwood agents.

"Right, I know you had basic training while you were in London but since you may actually have reason to use a gun here I think you could do with some more." He handed the gun to Ianto and moving behind him, led him over to face the first target with his hands on the other mas hips.

"Now, I want you to fire off one round for me" He didn't miss the tremble in Ianto's arm as he held out the gun in front of him. After a minute of silence where Ianto had still not fired Jack moved – If possible – closer to the Welshman and pressed a kiss to the soft spot behind his ear earning him a groan from his nervous student's lips. He then pulled away and picked up another gun from the table, this one was similar to Ianto's but silver.

"Here" he held out the gun for Ianto to take, the young man switched guns with Jack then looked confused "This one is loaded with blanks, now there's no way that you could hurt anybody with it" Ianto's expression brightened, while trying to figure out why he didn't like guns he had come to the conclusion that it wasn't about what damage they could do, but that he would be responsible for the damage they do to whoever he fires at. He was glad that he had confided in Jack about this, he had obviously taken it in to account when planning tonight's lesson and with the knowledge that he couldn't hurt anyone, he found it much easier to fire off round after round – with gentle encouragement from Jack – until he had emptied the magazine.

Satisfied with his progress, Jack let Ianto go for the night and the young man left the shooting range with a smile on his face. Once he was sure the other man was gone Jack walked over to the cardboard weevil Ianto had been shooting at and examined the damage: by his count, only one of the bullets from Ianto's clip had gone wide and most of the shots were concentrated in the chest. Telling the younger man that he was firing blanks was a stroke of genius and Jack smiled smugly to himself as he threw away the evidence and reset the range for their next lesson.

It really seemed that things were getting better, Ianto was healed, he had fired without wincing at the loud noise and the entire team seemed to be back to normal after their ordeal on the beacons.

* * *

><p><em>Elsewhere in Cardiff...<em>

Toshiko lay in her bed, the voices were pressing in and the pendant around her neck felt like it weighed a tonne, she curled into a ball and placed her hands over her ears. She could just take it off but the pendant's call was almost as seductive as the blonde woman asleep next to her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN I'm aware that firing blanks would feel different than firing real bullets but I'm assuming that Ianto is SO inexperienced with a gun that he won't know the difference. well Jack assumed...so it can only really make an ass out of him**


	8. Jack Harkness does NOT cuddle

**Chapter 8: Jack Harkness does NOT cuddle**

* * *

><p>It was 1030 at night and Owen and Gwen had left the HUB about an hour ago, Ianto was finished with his work for the day and barring any weevil sightings - which he had taken to helping Jack with - he was on his own time. Making one last trip to the kitchenette he prepared three drinks, a cup of Jack's usual industrial strength coffee and two hot chocolates, he loaded them onto a tray and stopped in front of Tosh's desk handing the tired, harassed looking woman her drink.<p>

"You okay Tosh?"

"Fine, I'll be fine Ianto, thanks." She indicated the hot drink and went back to preparing the list for UNIT.

Ianto had confirmed his suspicions, sure "I'll be fine" was a far cry from "help me" and Jack would probably laugh at him for reading too much into semantics but he remembered that phrase well... the whole time he had been hiding Lisa in the basement he had never been able to truthfully say that he was fine when someone asked him how he was, "I'll be fine" became his go-to answer because it wasn't _really _a lie, he just didn't feel like sharing everything with his colleagues. He hoped that Tosh would ask for help before whatever problem she had escalated like his did. Just in case he'd ask Jack to keep an eye out. He arrived at Jack's office and with one last look at Tosh sat behind her desk, he knocked on the door and entered.

Inside, Ianto set Jack's coffee on his desk where he was engrossed with another alien brainteaser and took his own drink over to the couch.

"The rift predictor says that there'll be a spike in about two hours"

"Hm..." Jack was still occupied with his toy

"I just don't think it's worth me going home"

"Hm..."

"Me, Tosh and Janet just had a threesome in the kitchen" Ianto was sure he wasn't listening

"Hm..."

"Jack!" Ianto put his mug down on the table

"What?" he stopped fiddling with the thing in his hand but didn't put it down

"I said" Ianto unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and took off his tie "there's going to be some rift activity in a few hours so it's not worth my going home, I thought I'd just stay here and kill some time, but if you're busy?" he glanced at the silver box in Jack's hand.

Jack threw the toy over his shoulder where it landed on top of the filing cabinet with a clang, then walked over to Ianto. The Welshman smirked and met him half way, satisfied that he had won he pulled his lover in for a kiss.

"What now sir? He asked, raising an eyebrow and watching Jack's reaction to his calling him "sir". It was one of the many things Ianto had discovered about Jack and his weird kinks in the past few weeks.

"How long have we got?"

Ianto checked his PDA "2 hours, give or take six minutes, there's a glitch in the predictor's program I'm working on with Tosh but it's fairly..." Jack cut him off with another kiss and they struggled down the ladder to Jack's bunker without breaking their hold on one another.

One hour and sixteen minutes later, Ianto thought to check his PDA to see how much was left before the rift spike was expected. "How long?"

"Still at least forty minutes"

"Then put that damned thing down and come back to bed"

Ianto resumed his previous position, lying at Jack's side with his head on Jack's arm, staring at the ceiling while one hand absently traced patterns on the other man's stomach.

"You know sir, I never expected you to be the cuddling type"

Jack turned to face him "This isn't cuddling, this is just us basking in the afterglow"

Ianto was quiet for minute but continued his hand movements, "feels like cuddling to me" he said, so quiet that without his superior 51st Century hearing, Jack wouldn't have heard it.

"Really?" a mischievous grin settled on Jack's face "and what does this feel like" he sat up and started tickling Ianto, paying special attention the space under his ribs and the back of his neck where he knew the young man was extra ticklish.

Ianto surrendered pretty quickly and Jack settled back against the pillows satisfied that he had won that argument, he may not jump right out of bed after sex but he did _not _cuddle. Ianto just decided to give him this one as Jack knew all of his ticklish spots and wasn't afraid to use the knowledge against him, he lay back with the other man and looked around. This wasn't the first time he had been in Jack's bunker but it always surprised him just how homely it seemed. Somehow he had always expected a camp bed in a tiny, low ceilinged hole whereas in reality, Jack's room was about the size of Ianto's own bedroom, painted yellow with a soft rug on the floor and a large bed which dominated the room. On one wall was a door which led to Jack's private bathroom and the walls were mainly covered in shelves, some held books but most just had artefacts which Ianto – as hard as he tried – could find no record of in the Torchwood archive.

He picked up his PDA from the night stand and seeing that there was only half an hour until the next predicted rift spike he got out of bed before Jack could persuade him otherwise and moved to pick up his clothes. Once he had on his pants and shirt he started throwing clothes at Jack until he finally got the message and moved. A few minutes later they were both dressed and on their way up through the HUB. Tosh must have gone home while they were downstairs and she had powered down the computers and turned off most of the lights, Ianto smiled at her thoughtfulness, nobody else ever bothered to power down the HUB so it was always left to him.

* * *

><p>The rift spike had turned out to be an alien animal, which looked kind of like a dog but green, four feet tall and with eyes like an insect. Jack had wanted to keep it as a pet but once it tried to maul Ianto he shot it in the head, nobody mauled Ianto Jones: nobody but him that was. Jack thought that he might even shoot Janet if she tried to do it. They got the body into the back of the SUV and drove back to the HUB, Jack carried the creature down to the autopsy area for Owen to dissect when he came in while Ianto went to take a shower, his clothes were covered in green blood and he honestly didn't think it was going to come out – yet another suit ruined in the name of Torchwood.<p>

When half an hour had passed and Ianto had not reappeared Jack decided to investigate, he found the young Welshman sat on the bench in the locker room next to the shower room in a towel scrubbing at his stained shirt with a bowl of hot water next to him. He looked up as he heard Jack enter

"I can't get it out, whatever that thing was, it's got blood like tar"

Jack laughed

"It's not funny Jack, this was a good suit, and between you ripping off buttons whenever you're too impatient to let me undo them and the alien gunk I get on them at work I go through far too many of them"

"Look, I'll buy you another suit"

"It's not about the money Jack, it's just annoying." rant over, Ianto gave up on the shirt and threw it into the bin on the other side of the room. He looked at Jack apologetically, Jack knew that Ianto was very careful with his clothes, because his tad was a tailor he had always had good quality clothes which lasted, he wasn't used to the Torchwood attitude of "hey a bullet hole, oh well that's another shirt for the bin".

It was after three and Jack had decided that rather than letting Ianto go home, only to have to come back in in a few hours he would let him stay here. They had never spent an entire night together but they were both too tired to realise the step they were taking by this point. When he was just about to drift off to sleep Ianto remembered what he wanted to talk to Jack about when he had brought him coffee earlier that night. He knew that Jack didn't really sleep, just dozed a little so he saw no harm in speaking up.

"Jack"

"mmhmm.."

"I'm worried about Tosh" there was silence in the bunker for a moment while Jack woke himself up a little.

"Why?" he still sounded sleepy

"Because she's been acting strangely and she..."

"No, I mean why now? "

Ianto rearranged the pillow and shifted so that he was lying on his front talking to Jack

"Because I just remembered, I tried to tell you before but we got distracted."

"Okay, well I'm listening"

"She's been jumpy and she looks so tired, I don't know what's going on but I think she might be in trouble and I wanted to let you know"

"I'll look into it" he rolled onto his back and but his arms behind his head "now get some sleep, the others will be in in a few hours"

"Yes sir" he couldn't help but smile as he rolled over to face the wall and went to sleep, knowing exactly what he was doing to Jack.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Well, there's a nice little chapter for you before we get into Greeks bearing gifts... I felt like I needed this...actually I felt like I needed a much dirtier version of this but then I remembered that I'm trying to keep this to a T rating so it got much less graphic.**


	9. Greeks Bearing Gifts

**Chapter 9: Greeks Bearing Gifts**

* * *

><p>"Jack I'm worried about Toshiko"<p>

What Ianto had said last night had worried Jack. Once again he had failed to notice that one of his team was in trouble; the first had been Suzie, when her experimentation with the glove became an obsession, then Ianto had fooled him to the extent that he didn't even suspect that the man might have such a huge secret buried in the depths of the HUB. Now it seemed that Tosh was hiding something from him, it was obvious and Jack didn't know how he had missed it until Ianto brought it to his attention. She seemed distracted, kept jumping when people entered the room and looked as if she hadn't slept for days; if he was honest he hadn't seen her looking this bad since he took her out of that UNIT facility. Jack decided to keep an eye on her and see if he could figure out what the problem was, if only this damned headache would go away he might be able to get some work done, maybe he could play the headache up a little in front of Ianto and get one of his amazing scalp massages. Jack sat behind his desk daydreaming about long welsh fingers running through his hair until Gwen called him down to the autopsy bay to laugh at the errors in Owen's initial report on the body...

* * *

><p>Ianto was tired, the three hours sleep he'd managed to get before Jack had decided to molest him into consciousness hadn't been nearly enough considering he'd been up since six the day before - not that he hadn't enjoyed being teased into wakefulness by Jacks skilled hands but by eleven O'clock he had been awake for six hours and was already exhausted. Not seeing any other way that he was going to get through the day he decided on making a pot of extra strength coffee, he was in the boardroom collecting cups from their earlier meeting when he saw Jack watching him from his office; leaning back in his chair with his feet on top of what looked like paperwork, he gave Ianto an innocent smile and waved sweetly, there was something intrinsically wrong with the fact that the gesture had Ianto hard remembering just what Jack could do with those hands. He smiled back at Jack and almost jumped out of his skin when he turned around to see Tosh sat at the boardroom table, surrounded by papers and looking like he felt: flushed and more than a little embarrassed, for him it was because he had been thinking about him having sex over Jack's desk the other day but he had no idea about Tosh's reason. He offered her a coffee but she declined and he made a swift exit, he really needed to control himself better, this thing with Jack was really starting to get in the way of his work. He couldn't even look at one of the filing cabinets in the archives without remembering how Jack had him pushed him up against it the week before.<p>

In the boardroom Tosh watched Ianto's retreating form as he made his way down to the kitchen; she tore the pendant from around her neck and threw it down on the table. Sure she was glad that her friend was happy but did she really need to have the full 3D, surround sound experience of it? It was such a personal memory that she felt guilty for invading Ianto's mind. What she had overheard from him was much stronger than the stray thoughts she had caught from Gwen and Owen; those thoughts had hurt her but Ianto's were different - unlike Gwen and Owen, Ianto had feelings for the person he was sleeping with so the memory was more important somehow. Owen remembered his time with Gwen as a kind of triumph, just another notch on his bedpost but Ianto's memories hadn't been focused on how Jack made him feel physically, she had been surprised by just how affecting the young man's emotions had been, she got the sense that he felt extremely safe with Jack. She frowned, while she felt like a bit of a mother hen for thinking it Toshiko was concerned that Ianto would get hurt in the end. Jack wasn't the most stable individual and she couldn't bear to see her best friend left broken-hearted when the captain inevitably moved onto his next conquest. Coming to a decision she picked up the pendant from the table, refastened it around her neck and concentrated on Jack, she had to know if he felt the same way as Ianto. Frustratingly Jack seemed to be the only member of the team she couldn't hear, even when she stood outside his office - god she had a headache, Tosh decided to try again later, she had just got a message from Mary who was apparently waiting on the plass.

* * *

><p>It was one o'clock and Jack Harkness was hungry, and horny, and Ianto Jones, the solution to both problems was nowhere to be seen. A quick check of the CCTV revealed that he had gone down to the archives about an hour ago. Taking a moment to perv at the final few seconds of footage he had of Ianto reaching to file something on a high shelf he adjusted his pants and took off towards the archivist's domain.<p>

Jack felt that he knew every inch of the Torchwood HUB, he had certainly been there long enough, but he always had trouble locating the room Ianto used as an office while he was down here. After a few wrong turns he managed to find it only to find the room deathly quiet. He walked inside, his view of Ianto's desk obstructed by several large bookcases filled with folders and was surprised to find Ianto Jones, the unflappable and ever professional archivist fast asleep at his desk, with what looked like drool on his cheek. Jack couldn't help but grin at his luck, it wasn't often that Ianto allowed himself to be vulnerable like this and - this morning excluded - he had never had the chance to exploit such a chance. Moving to sit on the corner of Ianto's desk - crumpling the papers piled neatly there- and leaned in to speak directly into the younger man's ear

"Jones," he said, perhaps a little louder than was necessary and Ianto started awake, doing a very good impression of a schoolboy caught sleeping in class, he looked up at Jack who was smirking at him

"Sir... I was just..." Jack chuckled, the unflappable Ianto Jones was flustered, unable to form a complete sentence.

"Really Ianto, I didn't think I'd worn you out so much" he teased his hands along Ianto's shoulders, moving to stand behind him and smiling at the satisfied, almost pornographic moan Ianto gave out when he massaged out the knots caused by sleeping hunched over a desk.

Ianto's head rolled back but when his head made contact with Jacks dark blue shirt he snapped back to reality, he sat forward in his chair and started to straighten up the papers on his desk.

"I should get back to work sir," he picked up a pen and finished the form he had been sleeping on, ignoring the slight drool stain. Jack frowned, he had hoped that catching Ianto unawares would lead to a repeat of this morning, however it seemed that Ianto wasn't interested. Pouting he moved to stand on the other side of the desk directly in front of Ianto, crossed his arms over his chest then waited.

Five minutes later Ianto couldn't bear the feeling of Jack's eyes on him while he tried to work any longer, putting down his pen he looked up at the infuriating man in front of him

"What is it sir? I'm really trying to work here."

Jack wasn't happy. Ianto was acting as if he didn't want to spend time with him.

"What, I can't come and see the gorgeous Welshman who hides away in places without cameras all day." he gave Ianto the smile which had always made him melt in the past.

"Sorry sir but the smile won't work today, I'd prefer it if we could remain professional during work hours" Ianto went back to his paperwork, ignoring the shock on Jack's face. it had been a very long time since anyone had turned him down.

"Professional like falling asleep at your desk Ianto?" he thought he'd won with that comment until he saw the hurt look on Ianto's face, Ianto took pride in his work, whether it was his perfect organisation of the massive archives or making sure the team had everything they needed, doing things to the best of his ability was part of who he was and Jack's accusation that he was slacking was hurtful.

Ianto schooled his expression back to the mask he always wore at work and responded in a voice which did not betray anything he was feeling "I'm sorry that I fell asleep sir, But coffee is no substitute for a good nights sleep and I think if I'd ingested any more caffeine this morning I'd be in the medical bay having a heart attack. As for my hiding down here as you put it, I've fallen behind on my work recently" the young man looked embarrassed to admit this fact "and I just think that if we can restrict ourselves to none-working hours then I won't have to worry about what work I should be doing every time you decide to distract me" Jack understood, and while he was glad that it wasn't anything personal he was surprised at just how much work Ianto did, the "to be completed" pile on his desk was two feet tall and there was a box of artefacts to be at filed as well, with that added to the lack of sleep which he now felt guilty for causing it was no wonder that Ianto was exhausted. bending the new rules as he oh so often did Jack stole a quick kiss from Ianto and left him to his work. Determined to keep a better watch on his favourite Welshman's health from now on.

* * *

><p><em><strong>back in the main hub...<strong>_

Toshiko was attempting to get her hands on the item Mary had asked her to get for her, as much as she hated lying to the team and as scared as she was of ending up back in a cell Tosh felt like she had to do what Mary said, the woman had shown her so much and while at first she had been shocked by her attraction to another woman - she had never even considered it before - once the novelty had worn off she found that she didn't even think about her lover's gender - or species. All Tosh knew was that she was having the most amazing sex of her life with a woman who as a telepath always knew exactly what Tosh liked.

She had just worked up the courage to touch the strange rusted object when Jack entered and told her about his contact in the police. He didn't seem to believe her explanation of what had led to her saving that mother and child and she had ended up leaving the HUB empty handed.

When she got home Mary was sat on her kitchen counter smoking and she wasn't pleased that Tosh hadn't managed to retrieve her transporter. She didn't know why she agreed to go back to the HUB but twenty minutes later they were walking through the tourist office, Mary reciting a poem while Tosh hurried behind her, hoping to get in and out before they were caught... she needn't have bothered as soon after they arrived Jack caught them and Tosh cowered slightly.

Ianto had come up from the archives to find The team and a blonde woman stood in the middle of the HUB, he didn't engage in the conversation but after a minute it became apparent that Tosh was able to read their thoughts. He felt slightly violated and as hard as he tried to bury it, Tosh heard his thought and looked at him like she was about to cry. After Jack transported Mary to the sun all thoughts of his own feelings weren't important to Ianto any more, all he wanted to do was comfort his friend. he wrapped his arms around her as if he could block out her pain and thought soothing thoughts, without words he told her that he would keep her safe and that everything would be okay. when she finally pulled away Tosh looked smaller than ever but offered Ianto a fragile smile before she made her way up to the plass where she knew that Jack was waiting, she sat down beside him and they listened to the cascading water behind them as they looked at the lights over the bay.

* * *

><p>"So what happens now?" Tosh could practically hear the UNIT cell calling to her, aiding an alien threat was treason and technically she was still a prisoner, only being four years into the five year contract Jack had drawn up to get her out of the UNIT prison.<p>

"That's your call"

"I..." Tosh was glad that Jack wasn't a "normal" boss, and wouldn't follow a procedure which would see her locked up indefinitely "do you think they'll forgive me"

Jack hugged her to his side, he was glad that he'd reassured her that he wasn't going to lock her up over this "they will, we're family"

"pretty weird incestuous family..." Tosh looked up at her boss "some of the things I heard..."

"Owen and Gwen? I'm sorry Tosh, I know you..."

Tosh cut him off, not wanting a reminder of her pain at learning that her crush was sleeping with Gwen

"not them"

"oh" Jack had hoped to avoid this conversation

"What I saw in Ianto' mind was much stronger than anything I felt from other people, he's my best friend and just know that if you hurt him then I will hurt you, understood?"

"yes ma'am" he stood and saluted her before offering her his arm to walk her back into the HUB.

* * *

><p><em><strong>an hour later..<strong>_

"Ianto?" Jack's singsong voice came over the coms to Ianto's earpiece

"Yes sir, I'm just locking up the tourist office then I'm done"

Jack smiled, it was barely ten and Ianto had finished the mountain of paperwork on his desk and still found time to drive Tosh home.

As Ianto made his way to the invisible lift he paused and turned to look at Jack over his shoulder,frowning slightly but doing his best sexy pout. "well, aren't you coming"

"Not yet but just wait till I get you home" he just couldn't resist, that one was too easy.

Ianto rolled his eyes but didn't protest when one of Jack's arms went around his waist and stayed there till they had walked back to his flat. When Ianto woke up the next morning he was alone but there was a note on the other side of the bed, it read;

"Yan, you're taking the morning off to catch up on some sleep. I knew you'd argue so I turned off your alarm so that you'd sleep in anyway."

Ianto glanced at the clock to see that it was after eleven, god he hadn't slept this late since he was fifteen.

"text me once you're up and I'll pop down, got to take advantage of these non-work hours haven't we Jones?"

Ianto picked up his phone from the night stand, feeling brave and still slightly sleepy, he composed a two word message which he felt communicated his feelings perfectly.

in his office Jack was lying on the couch bored when his phone buzzed. reading the message he laughed, never having heard such language from Ianto before

"Fuck you" the screen told him, he smirked and wrote a reply

"Sounds like a plan, I'll be there In 5"

Jack swung on his coat and all but ran out of the Hub, ignoring the team's questioning looks, eager to get to his pissed off Welshman. Because he'd be damned if Ianto wasn't sexy when he's angry.


	10. Why Do They Keep Killing Suzie?

**Chapter 10: Why Do They Keep Killing Suzie?**

* * *

><p>Ianto had thought that when Suzie shot herself it was over. He had liked Suzie, they had been friends so today had been more than a little difficult for him. It had all started this morning when the team were called out to a crime scene in the suburbs. When they got back they were talking about something called Pilgrim and RETCON, he hadn't gone with them on this one as Janet had decided to go a little crazy this morning but as Jack wanted him to get more involved in active cases he had joined them in the boardroom for their briefing. As he sat down Owen decided to theorise about all of the people they have ever retconned going psychotic. He paled at the thought, he was personally responsible for signing out RETCON from the stores so if everyone they gave it to became dangerous, he was partially responsible for that.<p>

He wasn't in the room when Gwen made her argument about the team using the glove to help in this case, watching her use it, he couldn't help but compare her to Suzie, he had helped Suzie with her experiments, timing the resurrections and looking after her when the physical drain form when she overdid it with the glove because too much, they were friends. now Gwen was trying to take her place and it wasn't right. the glove was Suzie's and Gwen should know that she had no right to use it. Even the name that he gave them "The Risen Mitten" had been one that he and Suzie came up with one night when they had been totally sloshed in the HUB. She had tried to kiss him that night and he had accidentally told her about Lisa, but rather than turning him in or using it to blackmail him as he expected her to do she had helped him. Just as he took care of her when she was physically exhausted from using the glove, she took care of him when he was emotionally exhausted from caring for Lisa. During his suspension he had wished for his friend, he thought that she would know what to say to make him feel better, she always did.

So even though he was impressed by Gwen's natural affinity with the glove she could never be a match for Suzie. With Suzie there had been none of the gasping and tensing as she made a connection, Suzie's control had been masterful and he had loved to watch her work, she always got much more information out of them as well, somehow knowing just what to say to calm a person down. As the last of their witnesses died for the last time he said Suzie's name, Ianto refused to believe that Suzie would be involved with this, even though she had killed people and had obviously not been entirely open with him he refused to think poorly of her now.

* * *

><p>"Suzie wouldn't go to that support group bollocks"<br>"How would you know, were you friends? any of you? who was her best friend in this place?"  
>"Me" Ianto stepped up "if she was involved with Pilgrim it could have only been her Wednesday night thing, she told me she was ringing her Dad but she was always a bit vague about why it took all night."<br>Though he thought that maybe he should be there, he had decided not to join the team at the lock up containing Suzie's belongings, he had been the one who had to pack it all up in the first place and it had nearly destroyed him seeing his friend's life reduced to a pile of boxes, he couldn't bring himself to face it all again.

Tosh didn't want to be there when they resurrected Suzie, and while he knew that Jack was expecting him to leave the room as well rather than running away like Tosh did Ianto had stood at the back of the room watching as Gwen tried to pull his friend back into life.

"Life Knife" he had been a little more reluctant to say this name, as he knew what they were going to do with it, it was another of the names Suzie came up with and as Jack plunged it into her chest, Ianto stood at her side, holding her hand and watching as she took in her first, painful lung full of air.  
>"Suzie, Suzie Look at me"<br>Rather than focusing on Jack, Suzie had looked straight at Ianto, he squeezed her hand and she turned back to the captain, only to yell at him until she fell unconscious a minute later. he stayed holding her hand, trying to alleviate some of her fear. Lying on the autopsy table her eyelids moved in the same way that they had when she had a nightmare while she was alive, she seemed to suffer from them much more in the days before her death: perhaps out of guilt.

He watched from the observation station as Jack questioned Suzie, she just looked tired, no that was wrong, she looked dead. He listened intently, trying to learn something which would divorce her from responsibility from these new murders at least. he was happy to listen until she told Jack that she had gone to Max because she had no one to talk to, he was on his feet and through the door before he could stop himself and was yelling at her before he was down the stairs.  
>"No one to talk to? what about me? I told you everything!"<br>"Ianto" she looked up at him with pleading eyes "I'm sorry"  
>"Yan" Jack put his hands on Ianto's arms, preventing from coming any further into the room "is now really the time, we have a killer to catch"<br>"Give me five minutes Jack, I'll get you what you need"

When Jack and Gwen had left the room Ianto took a seat next to his friend. "Suz, why couldn't you talk to me? I told you everything, why couldn't you do the same?"  
>"Because Ianto, the worst thing you ever did was love someone too much, I killed people, I killed them to get better results with the bloody glove" she was crying now "Just because you trusted me about Lisa doesn't mean that I was going to tell you that I'm a monster" she realised her slip.<br>"Oh god, they're still recording...Lisa.. I didn't mean to"  
>he took her hand "It's fine, they know"<br>"But"  
>"Dr Tanazaki, the one you helped me find, he came here and helped her, she could breathe without the life support and.. he choked on the tears which were threatening. "she killed people Suz, Dr. Tanazaki, a pizza girl and Jack"<br>"Oh, Ianto I'm sorry" he found himself pulled into a hug "...wait did you say she killed Jack? I killed Jack. Ianto, how is it that everyone keeps killing Jack but he's still here?" he pulled away from the hug  
>"yeah, Jack can't die. well he can he just doesn't stay that way. And before you ask I don't know how" There was quiet for a few minutes as Suzie cursed Jack and muttered 'poor bastard'<br>"Suzie we really need to know about this Max" she took the piece of paper from the table and wrote down everything she knew about him, which wasn't really a lot but it was something to go on at least. he stood to leave and she held onto his hand.  
>"Ianto, you're okay aren't you, not lonely"<br>"no, I've been well I..."  
>"you didn't give in to Jack at last did you"<br>Ianto flushed and mumbled "sort of", Suzie burst out laughing "God Ianto, I was kidding but hey, good for you. So is he really as good as the stories say?"  
>"I can hear you" Jack's voice singsonged over the comms and Ianto's blushed crimson"Yan, if you're done gossiping with Suzie I could really use that information. he stood, flushed again, kissed Suzie goodbye and made his way to Jack's office to hand over the sheet of information.<p>

* * *

><p>The rest of the day passed quickly, Suzie locked them in, kidnapped Gwen and Jack killed her, and at some point Ianto had managed to make Jack angry with him. While Jack was confronting Suzie on the pier, he had been on the comms begging Jack not to kill Suzie, surely they could figure out a way to keep both her and Gwen alive? But Jack had chosen Gwen and Ianto had some making up to do. He prepped Suzie to be frozen because he knew how Jack hated it and also he wanted it to be done with a little love. But then he was left standing there, babbling about the things you could do with stopwatches and Jack turned that winning smile onto him and he knew he must have said something right – inwardly Ianto grinned that he could seduce Jack while babbling about a timepiece. Satisfied, he arrived at Jack's office with a minute to spare, and by the next morning he was sure he'd undone any of the damage he'd done to their relationship yesterday.<p> 


	11. All I Want for Chrismas is you

**Chapter 11: All I Want for Christmas is you**

* * *

><p>Ianto was very, very annoyed. His perfectly planned Christmas was falling to pieces around his ears and it was all he could do to keep from screaming. All he had wanted was a lie in, to watch some crap on TV and then oh so casually call Jack and invite him for dinner. But no, his perfect Christmas had been doomed before it had even begun;<p>

First he had found out that Tosh couldn't go to see her family and would be alone for Christmas and his conscience wouldn't let him leave her home alone, upset on the holidays and he had to invite her. His irritation at having his plans changed a week before Christmas was melted away by the grateful, teary eyed smile she gave him when he told her that she was joining him.

Next Rhiannon had called him, furious that he wasn't coming to her house for Christmas lunch, he felt that all of the bridges he'd mended since Lisa were smashed to pieces when she brought up all of the birthdays he'd missed, it was in the heat of an argument but it still hurt when she told him not to bother coming to see them any more.  
>They had both said things they regretted but the next day Rhiannon called him to apologise... partly because she didn't want to lose her brother again and partly because her oven broke and she needed to relocate herself and the kids to Ianto's for Christmas dinner.<p>

Jack had just been the icing on top of the cake. On Christmas eve,Jack had ruined Ianto's car when he sat with John while he committed suicide and arrived back at the HUB in a foul mood. So he wasn't exactly in the best frame of mind to deal with an over-excited and slightly hyper Tosh asking him if he was excited to have Christmas with Ianto's family. This had caused another argument, Jack summoned Ianto to his office where he had asked the slightly confused Welshman what the hell Tosh was talking about and informed him that he didn't "do" meet the family. While Ianto knew that Jack was always cranky after he died but he couldn't help but be hurt by some of the things Jack had said and once he was deep in the archives and safe from the CCTV he had broken down, mourning his perfect Christmas.

* * *

><p>By 0800 on Christmas morning Ianto was awake, for a man who usually got up by 0530 that was a lie in. Rather than lying in bed staring at the ceiling any longer he went into the bathroom, stripped off the brand new penguin pyjamas he had worn just because it was Christmas eve then stood under a shower until his body was as awake as his mind.<br>Dressed in jeans and his favourite red shirt Ianto made his way into the living room and did a double-take. Tosh had stayed in the guest room last night and right now she was sat cross legged on his couch, flicking through one of his many photo albums, when he had gone to bed after midnight last night he had left Tosh in the living room after she told him that she'd be going to bed in a minute. It seemed that rather than go to bed she had taken it upon herself to decorate his flat with paper chains and tinsel which had come from god knows where. Sometimes it seemed like Tosh loved Christmas a little too much, there were paper chains all on every wall and was that a gingerbread house on the table. Ianto shook his head and decided not to question it.  
>"Merry Christmas Ianto" he smiled at her, she looked like a big kid in her over sized pyjamas with monkeys on them.<br>"you too Tosh, Coffee?" he set about making them some breakfast and Tosh went to take a shower. As Rhiannon was bringing the kids Ianto had decided to serve lunch no later than 1300. while Tosh showered and changed he cleaned the flat from top to bottom, he was just finishing in the kitchen when Tosh walked in wearing a very festive big jumper, a pair of leggings and she was leaving her hair to dry on it's own, causing it to start to curl. after seeing the immaculate flat she looked around guiltily.  
>"what can I do? you finished the whole flat while I was in the shower" Ianto held up a colander full of potatoes "you could peel these" together they prepped the veg and set the turkey to slow cook so that there was little to do later then sat down to watch home alone on BBC1<p>

Kevin had just been reunited with his parents when Ianto heard a key turn in his lock and his sister, niece and nephew entered, loaded down with presents. Mica was as excited as Tosh and tore into the presents under the tree earning a laugh from her family. By the time all of the presents were open the floor was covered in scraps of brightly coloured paper and the apartment was filled with the smell of delicious food, Ianto was In the kitchen putting Yorkshire puddings into his large oven when Rhiannon decided to ambush him.

"So, this Tosh? is she your girlfriend?"  
>"No"<br>"But I thought you'd been dating someone?"  
>"No" and he was telling the truth, Jack had made it perfectly clear that whatever it was they were doing, they weren't a couple and Ianto had decided not to be upset about that, sure he may not have a nice normal relationship but what he had was better than nothing. Seeing that she wasn't going to get anything out of her brother Rhiannon dropped it for now but he could tell that she wasn't happy. No, she wouldn't be satisfied till he had a wife and a dozen fat children - needless to say he was not planning on telling her about Jack.<p>

* * *

><p>At exactly 1300, and right on schedule dinner was ready. Everyone say around the table, Ianto ignoring the ache in his chest when he remembered that the other end of the table was empty since he had set it for six just in case. They had just pulled crackers and Ianto had carved the turkey when for the second time that day, Ianto's ninja hearing detected the sound of a key turning in his lock.<p>

"HoHoHo! Merry..." Jack trailed off at the confused looks he was getting from the room's occupants and the flaming crimson cheeks of Ianto Jones, who jumped from his seat to push Jack into the kitchen.  
>"Jack!" Ianto's voice had gone up half an octave in the last minute "what are you doing here? and what the hell are you wearing?" He looked down, taking in the fact that Jack Harkness was in the same flat as his sister wearing nothing but underpants, his RAF coat and a Santa hat, with a large bag slung over his shoulder.<br>"I'm sorry for yesterday," he looked about as serious as a man could in his underpants "I woke up this morning and I missed you so I watched back the CCTV from yesterday and I saw you crying in your office."  
>Ianto looked embarrassed, then confused " but there is no CCTV in my office"<br>"I may have put some in there last week." Jack did his best I'm guilty but forgive me because I'm cute face and Ianto shook his head.  
>"Perving again sir?"<br>Jack smiled, if Ianto was calling him sir then he must be forgiven.  
>"Any turkey going begging? I'm starving"<br>Ianto sighed and opened the stove to reveal a plate of food he had put out in case Jack turned up, Jack went to pick up a potato with his fingers but Ianto smacked his hand away.  
>"If you're eating then you're eating at the table, go to my closet and find something that'll fit you" Jack pouted but did as he was told.<p>

Back at the table Ianto had a bit of explaining to do,  
>"Ianto? who's captain underpants? and why is he here"<br>Tosh, being the angel that she was had tried to save him from any further questioning "That's Jack, he's our boss but we weren't sure if he was coming or not so we didn't tell you"  
>Unfortunately, Mica is far too smart for her age and wasn't prepared to ignore the detail Tosh left out "but doesn't he have any clothes on?"<br>Jack chose this moment to return, barefoot and dressed in sweatpants and a White t shirt. "you must be Mica, Hi I'm jack" he held out a hand for her to shake  
>Mica was definitely Ianto's niece, she had the same creepy, stoic expression when she knew that people were withholding information from her. "why were you in your underpants, were you sad? when Uncle Ianto came to stay with us because he was sad he stayed in his pants because he was too sleepy to get dressed" she looked thoughtful " but he wore a dressing gown not a funny coat"<br>Jack looked at Ianto who seemed embarrassed that his family remembered how bad he had been during the first week of his suspension, then back at the inquisitive little redhead sat next to him "Yes I was sad, and one thing that can always make me happy is your uncle Ianto's cooking so I thought I'd drop by, I just forgot to put on my clothes before I left"  
>"but you remembered a Santa hat?"<br>"of course I did, Santa hats are good, I had a friend who told me that once and he's really..."  
>"you're weird"<br>Jack stuck out his tongue at the child only to be told off by Ianto, he pouted and the whole table laughed, finally seeming at ease with the strange man who crashed their party.

* * *

><p>Later that night Jack was lying on Ianto's bed while Ianto made them a drink, he came back but didn't lie next to Jack on the bed, instead he sat on the very edge and downed his glass of the very nice, very old bourbon Jack had given him for Christmas.<br>"Yan," Jack sat behind him and wrapped a hand around his waist "you okay?"  
>"I'm fine, it's just, Rhiannon was a bit... surprised to find out that we'd been seeing each other" Jack smiled against Ianto's shoulder at the memory, it had been David who had asked Jack what he was playing at, after he had walked in on a rather heated kiss between Jack and Ianto in the kitchen only to find him "flirting" with Tosh a minute later, honestly he had only commented that this relaxed look worked for her and she should do it more often. This had led to Rhiannon wanting to know why Ianto was kissing a man in front of her kids which had led to an argument between herself and Jack about homophobia.<p>

"this is why I don't meet the family"  
>"I'm sorry"<br>"for what?"  
>"you didn't want to come, if I hadn't made you feel guilty..."<br>Jack turned Ianto around to look at him " Yan, think about what you're saying for a minute. You're apologising for me seeing a video of you crying after I screamed at you even though you thought you were safe from the cameras at the time?"  
>"Okay, I so I sound like a crazy person, but I can't lose Rhiannon because of this Jack, she's the only family I've got"<br>Jack kissed him then smiled "oh don't worry you won't"  
>"Jack? what did you do?"<br>"Nothing"  
>"Then what's that smile about"<br>"I may have asked Tosh to slip a little RETCON into their Christmas pudding, all they'll remember is that they had the best Christmas ever and that they love you very much"  
>Ianto looked as if he was about to cry "Thank you"<br>"Hey. If you want to thank me then get over here" he patted the spot next to him in the centre of the bed," now" he started to undo Ianto's shirt " if you'll excuse me I'm about to open my present"


	12. Combat, Conflict, Cuddling and Crumbs

**Chapter 12: Combat, Conflict, Cuddling and Crumbs**

* * *

><p>Jack was enjoying the whole 'Ianto is a field agent' thing, three months after they had first begun training Ianto was a sharp shot, could outrun a weevil even in his most restrictive suits and had passed Owen's crash course in field medicine with flying colours.<p>

Late night weevil hunts usually led to Ianto staying at the HUB so Jack wasn't about to argue with that either, while he still maintained that he was not a cuddler Jack had to admit that it was nice having someone there to make his nights less lonely, even if he did have to remember to get up before Ianto; the first morning when they had woken up together Jack had felt something that he hadn't felt in a very long time, it had seemed so right, so natural, them waking up together and that had him scared, even if Ianto did live beyond the life expectancy of a Torchwood agent there was no guarantee that he would still want Jack if he had aged and the other man looked the same. Jack wasn't going to let himself get hurt again so he kept what he had with Ianto as casual as possible; they never stayed together two nights on the run and Jack made sure that they never did anything resembling a date, Today however Jack had had some trouble controlling the protectiveness he felt towards the younger man.

As yet, Ianto had not been out in the field with the rest of the team so as far as Owen, Tosh and Gwen were concerned he had never been out on active duty. Jack had pitched the idea of training Ianto to the rest of the team with promises of a lower workload and an extra pair of hands when capturing aliens which they were yet to see, and in the last week Owen ad Gwen had begun to ask why this was not being delivered. so far the only change the team had seen during work hours was that it now took Ianto an hour to take Jack each cup of coffee and handing over a hot beverage required the door to be locked, Jack could deal with Gwen but since Owen lost Diane some of his comments had become quite hurtful so Jack decided to give Ianto a more active role in this case so that nobody had any reason to question Ianto's worth as a member of the team.

* * *

><p>To his credit Ianto had not disappointed him so far and he was slowly proving himself in the eyes of the team to be more than just the tea boy. when Jack, Tosh and Ianto had been in his office discussing theories about the increase in weevil activity in the city Ianto had produced a list of suspicious injuries from Cardiff general A&amp;E which seemed to come out of thin air. The young man's quick response suggest that he kept up to date with reports from outside agencies and emergency services, something Jack usually looked to Tosh for, she had developed a computer program to monitor outside reports for key words while Ianto did it manually. Tosh was impressed with the speed that he sifted through information to pick out what was relevant, she thought that this must be a skill which he picked up managing the archives.<p>

Later, in the autopsy bay Ianto had surprised them again, there had been no volunteers to break the news of their latest corpse's death to his wife and child and Gwen had almost resigned herself to being stuck with the dreaded task when Ianto had offered to do it. She had gone with him and was impressed at how well he had done for his first time: He managed to appear professional without seeming unfeeling and he had lied with practised ease when giving the widow a story about her husbands quick painless death, she had even thanked him as they left, in all of her years with the police she had never seen someone keep a distraught loved one so calm while delivering bad news. Gwen thought that maybe having to deal with retconning witnesses and taking statements after every alien encounter with the public had given him the skills he needed for this part of the job.

Thrilled at not being the only person being the one having to break bad news to members of the public any more Gwen had stopped the SUV outside a shop in the town centre and ignoring Ianto's confused look had gone inside to buy him a cinnamon swirl from her favourite bakery, He had frowned at the treat for a moment but had accepted it as a token of her acceptance and Gwen was rewarded when back at the HUB she got to watch Jack trying to steal bites of Ianto's treat while the young man smacked his hand away. Ianto regretted not sharing his treat when he got to the kitchen to find that there were no biscuits left, Jack had even emptied the stash of good biscuits he kept for when important visitors were around, very important visitors, like the queen, maybe not even then, they were very special biscuits, damn Jack and his sweet tooth. with his increased workload there was no way that Ianto would be able to run out and buy more sweets so all Ianto could do was pray that nothing would happen to piss Jack off once his blood sugar levels dropped to a level that wouldn't have doctor's asking why he isn't in a diabetic coma.

Even Owen - who argued that he didn't want to be saved - had to admit that Ianto did a good job of treating him till the paramedics arrived, he had obviously listened during his field medicine lessons and had probably done more research after that because it might have been the blood loss but Owen was sure that he hadn't taught Ianto how to seal an artery. While he lay on the cold concrete floor Ianto had worked tirelessly to stem the blood flow and once the ambulance came he handed over smoothly to the professionals, giving them all of the information they needed to get him stable on the way to the hospital, Ianto had not left Owen's side until he knew that he was out of danger, taking responsibility for his patient's well being just as Owen did when one of the team was injured. Owen may not have wanted to be saved but he had been, and he was confident in Ianto's abilities for the future.

* * *

><p>By the end of the day, the only member of Torchwood 3 who had a problem with Ianto's performance was Jack. Earlier when he had decided to use Janet as bait to catch the people kidnapping weevils Ianto had challenged him, and sexy as it was he couldn't afford to have a member of his team questioning such an important decision, usually is was Gwen who argued with him but she was easily distracted by a little flirtation, Ianto was harder to persuade. Leaning back on his chair and putting his feet on his desk Jack remembered their fight earlier:<p>

"Jack! you could send any of the weevils from the vault, why Janet?"

Jack had stopped walking towards the cells and turned to face Ianto, he looked different today; he had on a darker shirt than usual which made his blood red tie stand out and he seemed to have a new found air of confidence about him.

"Because, she's the best girl for the job"

Ianto had given him an incredulous look "she's spoiled Jack, when was the last time she even hunted? she's not going to be able to protect herself"

"Last week"

"What?" Ianto was stretch to get annoyed with Jack's calm exterior

"she hunted last week"

"Last?..." Ianto rolled his eyes " That live chicken you bought her for Christmas doesn't count"

"but she caught it didn't she? there were feathers everywhere"

"you put a chicken against a weevil! they usually eat sewage, its not much of a fight"

They had argued along those lines for half an hour until Ianto had finally given in, telling Jack not to come crying to him if his baby got hurt and told him to go eat a cookie before his lack of sugar started affecting his judgement any more.

* * *

><p>It turned out that Jack was right about Janet, she took a chunk out of Owen before he got out of the cage and Jack had almost had to shoot her. he was glad that he didn't have to and as he was loading her into the back of the SUV, with Ianto having gone to the hospital with Owen, Jack promised her another chicken for proving him right. Ianto was always right, almost annoyingly so Jack was revelling in the change.<p>

Once had Janet settled Jack went back to the main HUB to look for Ianto – not to gloat, just to point out to his lover that he was right and Ianto was wrong – the young man was nowhere to be seen, he had texted him to say that Owen was fine and he was heading back to the HUB. Jack did one last check of all the places that Ianto could be hiding then gave up, picked up the keys to the SUV and drove to Ianto's flat. He decided on a stealthy approach, using his key rather than buzzing to get into the building, he even removed his boots when he got into the flat to be extra silent. He followed sound of – was that girls aloud? from the kitchen and the smell of something delicious until he was stood in the doorway of Ianto's kitchen watching the young man with his back to him, his hands busy with something on the counter.

"I know you're there sir"

"damn, I was being quiet"

Ianto turned to face him, leaning against the counter in a way that made his t shirt pull tighter across his torso" you were humming to the music" Ianto dead-panned

"really? Stupid girls aloud being so catchy"

"you'd never make it as a ninja" this made them both laugh

"is that a cake? " Jack came closer to Ianto and tried to look around him at what was on the counter,

"it's for tomorrow" Ianto saw Jack's pout and decided to put an end to his complaining before it started "fine, you can have one piece"

Jack's face lit up and he quickly cut a piece of the coffee cake and put it onto a piece of kitchen roll rather than a plate

Ianto watched ad Jack headed out of the kitchen "where are you going with that?"

"where do you think?"

"No Jack! you are not eating cake in my bed, last time I ended up with crumbs in my belly button"

Jack took a bite of his cake and took a step closer to the bedroom, ignoring Ianto

"Jack, put down the cake and look in the fridge." Jack looked at Ianto for a second then put down his slice of cake and went back into the kitchen. The last time he had seen that look on Ianto's face he had spent the rest of the night cuffed to his bed in his bunker, if tonight was going to be half as fun then it was better than a slice of cake. Opening the fridge Jack was faced with several varieties of his favourite sweet, sticky foods which would not definitely not leave crumbs. Jack was like a kid in a candy store as he picked up the different bowls and all but ran back to the bedroom where Ianto was waiting.

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><p><strong>AN Okay.**.. I have NO idea where that ending came from but hey I'm not going to stop them if the boys want to lick chocolate off each other. But if there's a video floating about I wouldn't mind a copy ^^


	13. The end

**Chapter 15: The end**

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><p>Ianto Jones was numb. For the second time in less than a year his world had been so thoroughly shaken by the person that he loved that he just couldn't feel any more. With Lisa he'd been on a massive high, and had spent weeks barely being able to contain his happiness at the renewed hope for their future which Dr Tanazaki brought. Then she was gone and he had hit rock bottom, it had taken him a long time to dig his way out of the depression he felt after that day but he had found a friend in Jack. Jack understood how it felt to lose someone because he had lost everybody he had ever loved. Slowly at first, their friendship had grown into something more and Ianto had fallen pretty hard for the man he once called a monster.<p>

Then Jack and Tosh had been pulled back through the rift to 1941 and Ianto thought that he'd never see him again. Selfish and irresponsible as it was he wanted to use the rift key to bring them back but he hadn't had to, Owen had done it for him.

After that Ianto had a whole week where he spent more time with Jack before the disaster that was Abbadon. At least for the first two days that Jack had stayed dead he had too much work to do to be able to collapse with grief like he wanted to: he had to RETCON half of Cardiff and deal with the bodies of everyone caught in Abbadon's shadow. By the third day Ianto was physically exhausted and had nothing to do but grieve. He refused to go down to the morgue, no matter how much Tosh told him that he needed closure, he didn't want to kiss Jack's cold unresponsive lips and say goodbye so Ianto had stayed away. He drew the blinds in Jacks office, breathed in the scent of his coat and wished like a child on Christmas morning for the man he loved to come back.

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><p>Jack's return from death had been yet another loop on the emotional roller-coaster he had been on for the last few weeks. Jack had kissed him in front of everyone and that night Ianto took a chance:<p>

"Jack?" he asked, propping himself up on one elbow so that he was looking straight into his lovers eyes

"Yeah"

"While you were gone I..." Ianto was adorably nervous, his ears had turned red and he could no longer look Jack in the eye "I didn't like it, I need you here Jack. I think I'm in love with you"

Jack was surprised that Ianto had come out and said it and he knew that his confession had been difficult so he pulled the younger man back down next to him and started tracing patterns down his back with one hand; he pressed a gentle kiss to Ianto's shoulder then answered

"I'm not going anywhere"

"Promise?" Jack sat up, the sheet that covered them pooling around his hips as he groped around in the bedside drawer for a second, Ianto thought maybe he'd said something wrong but then Jack turned back to him, cocked an eyebrow suggestively and held up a pair of silver handcuffs

"If you want to make sure?" for effect he waved them in front of Ianto for a moment but the Welshman wasn't interested in tying his lover down. They were both free to make choices about their relationship and Ianto was still over the moon that his confession hadn't been flat out rejected, rising up to meet Jack he captured his lips in a kiss and whispered "I trust you"

And he did, however foolish that might have been. Less than twenty four hours after Ianto confessed his love for Jack and he had promised to stay the man had left him. The only information the team had was a five second clip of Jack running across the plass to meet a strange blue box which had parked on top of the invisible lift. Ianto had re watched the footage a dozen times and the thing that struck him was the look on Jack's face - it was a look that Ianto had seen when erasing CCTV evidence of their games of naked hide and seek. This 'Doctor' who Jack went chasing after was obviously more than a friend and Ianto was surprised to find that while Jack's leaving hurt him, the fact that he had left to chase after somebody new didn't make it worse. Jack was immortal so Ianto could never give him forever and had come to terms with the fact that eventually Jack would move onto someone new. Honestly he hadn't imagined that it would be so soon though.

The fact that he could accept Jack's decision didn't mean that there wasn't a hole in his heart that he didn't know how to fill. And that night as the rest of the team left work to go back to their lives he was left standing in an empty HUB with no idea what to do with himself. It was barely 8pm and Ianto Jones was ready to go home to bed out of sheer boredom. Until now Ianto hadn't realised quite how much time he spent with Jack - his complete lack of a life outside Torchwood was actually quite pathetic now that Jack was gone and Lisa was dead and he had nothing to do on a Friday night.

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><p>At home Ianto had cleaned his flat, alphabetised his DVDs, made a huge meal that he had no interest in eating and was about to go mad with boredom when his doorbell rang.<p>

"Iantooooo!" it was Tosh, and she sounded drunk "lemmee in! I'm cold" he buzzed her in to the building but five minutes later when she still hadn't made it to his third floor apartment he went to investigate. He didn't have to go far and found his usually straight laced colleague completely hammered sat on the floor in the lift having a conversation with the light fixture about waves and particles. Ianto took one look at her and decided that he had seriously underestimated just how drunk his friend was.

"Come on" he picked up his friend and deposited her in his living room where she promptly threw up on his freshly cleaned floor and announced that she was sleepy, kicking off her shoes and curling up on the large couch. He tried to convince her to move into the guest room but she simply switched into Japanese and refused. Too tired to argue with a drunk, sleepy Japanese woman he picked up the blankets he kept for such occasions, covered Tosh then cleaned up the puddle of sick and went to bed himself.

5am saw Toshiko squinting at the half light of Ianto's living room, cringing at the alcohol stained clothing she had slept in and cursing Owen for taking her out clubbing then abandoning her to shag some nineteen year old in the toilets. Standing up and wearing her blanket like a cape Tosh felt like a child climbing into her parent's bed. That was how she felt when she stayed with Ianto, all of the safe, warm feelings that come from such close human contact with none of the complications thrown in by sex. Standing in the doorway of her friend's bedroom she was surprised to see that Ianto lay sprawled across the entire bed with the blankets tangled around him, it was weird because every time she had stayed here he had always been a very still sleeper, perhaps when he was alone he slept differently. Tosh curled Into his side and allowed her eyes to close, the pair got another hour's sleep before Ianto's alarm sprang to life and informed them it was time to get up for work.

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><p>By that night Ianto was feeling much more optimistic than he had been yesterday. In the morning he had given an extremely hung over Owen a bollocking for abandoning Tosh in town and had informed the snarky medic that as punishment he was on Decaf for the rest of the day. Tosh, who was still a little drunk from last night, had nearly fallen over from laughing at this.<p>

In the afternoon (while Tosh slept off the hangover which had her cursing the inventors of Sambuca around 1pm) Ianto had spoken to Gwen - who had assumed command of Torchwood 3 in Jack's absence - about setting up a gym/ physical training area downstairs on the Torchwood account as a way of giving them something to do when it was quiet. She had agreed and now Ianto was happy to have a project to keep him busy during work hours. He didn't have to worry about having nothing to do after work either as he had agreed to go clubbing with Tosh every so often.

Ianto was so busy thinking of all the good things he had to look forward to that as he walked home he failed to notice that he was being watched, he didn't hear the click of a pen as his stalker made notes on his movements and he didn't see the flash of a camera. Ianto Jones was excited about starting a new phase in his life, making a few changes, he had no idea just how huge those changes were going to be.

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><p><strong>AN well, this is the last chapter of Let's start again. the story is not over, in fact it's going to be so long that I'm splitting it into five sections. The sequel "Let's Make a Change" is being posted now. It can be found by going through my profile. Part 2 will follow the team through the three months Jack was gone for and we will also find out who is following Ianto and what they have in store for him.**


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